


I Can Be Your King

by Fridaannamaria



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Anxiety, Birthday Party, Boys Kissing, Celebrity Crush, Clumsy Harry, Coming Out, Crush at First Sight, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Kings & Queens, Kissing, M/M, Mild Smut, Modern Royalty, Nervous Harry, OT5 Friendship, Party, Prince Louis, Princes & Princesses, Royalty, Snogging, Strangers to Lovers, Tattoos, Tickle Fights, larry stylinson - Freeform, m/m - Freeform, posh posh posh, small injury
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-10
Updated: 2015-02-19
Packaged: 2018-01-18 22:04:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 51,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1444510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fridaannamaria/pseuds/Fridaannamaria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was going to be boring, a whole week at a castle in the middle of nowhere, just to celebrate some old relative he couldn’t care less about. But when Louis meets Harry, the stepson of one of their greatest family friends, his life will change for ever.</p><p>Or: Louis is the prince of Great Britain and Harry is new to the glamours life of Great Britain's royal/upperclass.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Well.. this happened and stuff.. Well enjoy some crappy royal Larry!  
> And sorry for all grammatical errors and such things. Im Swedish so English is not my main language.  
> More notes at the end.

Louis looked out of the window of the black Audi and sighed. He saw the landscape slowly change from city to countryside. He sighed again. 

This was going to be boring, a whole week at a castle in the middle of nowhere, just to celebrate some old relative he couldn’t care less about. He turned around to his parents and interrupted their low conversation. ”Why do I need to come?” He asked them with a grumpy voice.

”It’s good manners Louis.” His mother said and his father nodded in agreement.

Louis rolled his eyes and frowned.”Why can the girls stay at home then?” He crossed his arms and stared sullenly at them.

”Because..” His father said with a tired voice. ”...they’re not old enough to go on this trip, you know that.”

”And I am?”

”Your’e twenty-two years old Louis.” His mother said with a soft voice and a matching smile.

”Yeah so? Will it even be any people my age there?”

”Yes! Eleanor will be there!” His mother said in a little too eager tone.

Eleanor and him had been friends since their early childhood. She was the daughter of a duke, and they always had a fun time together. But ever since his parents and Eleanor parents started talking about that they should get married, things had gotten a little strange between them. 

He was glad that she would be there, he would at least not be alone, but he would have to live with his mothers eyes on them all the time, waiting for hint about them being a couple. But yeah, that would never happen. Them being a couple that is. 

He was quiet the rest of the car ride and didn’t even so much as move until he spotted the big castle emerge in the distance. 

It was a beautiful castle! Much bigger than their own in London. But Louis had long ago stopped getting really chocked and excited over big castles, he was used to them now. But he had to admit: this was something special. As they drove through the big gates and in to the castle yard he studied the big building through the window of the car. 

The castle was built in sand coloured stone and had no towers. The windows were quite big and beautiful sculptures were placed all over the grand building. The front was also adorned by a wide staircase that led up to the large wooden front door, and on each side of the castle there was smaller buildings in the same sand coloured stone as the big castle, Louis guessed that the staff lived there.

Even if they were quite early, a small queue of cars had already formed in front of the big stairs. But the staff that took care about the guest’s arrival was efficient and within a couple of minutes they stopped in front of the big staircase. When the driver went out of the car to go around to open the door for them, his father turned to him and said with a cautionary glance; ”Just as charming as always?” 

Louis nodded and put on his ”prince charming” smile. 

It had nearly become his nickname, prince charming. He was charming, self confident, good looking and always knew what to say and when to say it. And well he was a prince too, so maybe it did kind of make some sense.

Their driver opened the door and the sunlight blinded him, so much brighter than it had appeared through their tinted windows on the car. His parents climbed out of the car and he followed them. 

A shorter man with black hair and a friendly face was greeting them at the bottom of the stairs. He was wearing a red west with golden buttons, a white shirt underneath the west and black trousers. He held a clipboard, with several paper sheets on it, in a tight grip.

”Your majesties.” He said and bowed. ”My name is Philip and I must say it’s a honour to meet you.” He smiled up at them.

”Our pleasure.” His dad said and returned the smile.

”I will be showing you to your rooms, so if you just follow me.” Philip made a gesture up the stairs and they started walking, three men behind them was carrying their luggage. 

Louis sped up his pace so he walked beside Philip.

”Philip, will it be any more guest that’s my age?” He asked the shorter man. 

Philip looked up at him and grinned.”Yes sir, quite many actually!” 

He leafed through the papers on the clipboard and then said; ”Are you familiar with Miss Calder?” 

Louis nodded. Yes he was familiar with Eleanor.

”Well she will arrive sometime soon.” Philip said ”And then we have Mr Malik, Mr Payne and Mr Horan and..”

”Then i’m happy.” Louis said and smiled, satisfied with the answer.

They walked up a staircase and was now on the second floor, then they took a right turn and now they were walking down a corridor with wooden walls, a red carpet on the floor, soft lightening and many doors on both sides. They stopped outside a door with the number 114 on it.

”This is your room, Sir Louis.” Philip said and took a key out of his pocket. He opened the door and Louis stepped in to a beautiful room. 

The room had white walls and dark wooden floor, and it was decorated with dark wooden furniture. A queen sized bed with white soft sheets stood against the wall to the right and against the wall to the left stood a dark wooden chest of drawers. A big white sofa, a dark wooden coffee table and a luxurious flat TV took up the space in the corner. There was also a door that probably led to the bathroom. The wall right in front of him was dominated by one of the castles large windows and he had a beautiful view over the castle yard.

He turned around to his parents and smiled. ”This is great!” 

His mother nodded and let the man who carried Louis bags pass her and walk in to the room.

”Thanks.” Louis said to the man that now put his two bags down on the floor. The man bowed and disappeared out of the door.

”Are you sure you will be fine?” His mother asked and walked up to him. She put her hand on his arm and looked at him. 

Before he could answer the question, his father raised his voice; ”Of course he will be fine! Like you said, he’s twenty-two years old, a grown up man who can take of himself! Am I right Louis?” His father smiled at him and Louis gave him a thankful smile back. ”Yes your’e perfectly right dad.”

”Well, okay then.” His mother sighed, but then she smiled and gave him a small hug.

”We should continue to our room now and leave you alone.”

Louis was thankful that his father understood that he needed some time alone. He grinned and let his mother hug him again and followed them to the door, he couldn’t help but let out a happy sigh when he closed the door behind them.

This trip wasn’t going to be so bad after all! He had a room for himself (sometimes he had to share room with his parents, and that was a living nightmare) and all his best friends would be here soon. He walked up to the window and looked out. 

His window was right over the big staircase that led up to the front door so he had an excellent view over the guests that arrived in their many different luxurious cars. He stood there for a couple of minutes and watched people get out of their cars, he recognised many of them from other events like this. 

A grey BMW stopped in front of the stairs and the driver went out and opened the door for the people in the car. Louis smiled a little when Sir Calder made his way out the car closely followed by Mrs Calder and then Eleanor. 

Eleanor was beautiful, there was no denying there. With her long brown hair and her big brown doe eyes. And today she was wearing a beautiful white summer dress. Well if Louis was into that stuff he probably would have dated her. The problem was: he wasn't into that stuff. 

Stuff = girls. In other words: Louis was gay. 

Eleanor had been the first to know, and she had been really supportive. He was really thankful for that! And she helped him a lot when he told the others in their little gang. They had been very acceptive and kind about it, which made everything so much easier.

He opened the window, and that caught Eleanors attention. He stuck his head out of the window and waved, she laughed at him and waved back. If they had been alone they probably would have shouted a greeting to each other too, but at events like this, with so many people around to impress, they had to restrain themselves a bit.

He watched as Eleanor’s family got greeted by a woman wearing the same outfit as Philip. The woman made a gesture up the stairs and they started walking. 

Louis sat down in the sofa and waited. He knew that Eleanor would come here as soon as she got settled in her own room. 

He was right. After ten minutes of scrolling through his twitter feed he heard someone knock on the door, he put his phone down and got up and opened.

”Hello there you goof!” Eleanor said and gave him a rib crushing hug.

”Hello there yourself, long time no seen.” Louis said and let go of her.

She gave him an evil grin, winked and said; ”Maybe I was hiding from your ugliness?”

Louis pinched her arm and they both laughed.

”You’ve got yourself a pretty nice room here...” Eleanor said when the laughter had died out. She walked up to the window ”...and the view isn’t that bad either..” she cut herself off and put her face closer to the window glass. And then suddenly she said; ”Well, well. Another familiar face.” And laughed a little.

Louis joined her by the window, he looked down just in time to see Zayn climbing out of their big silver car. Zayn turned around and helped someone get out of the car, it was Perrie of course.

Zayn’s mother, Mrs Malik, was a duchess and had introduced Zayn and Perrie to each other. Perrie worked in a designers clothing store that Mrs Malik adored, and one time she’d made Zayn go with her, shopping, because she thought that they needed some quality mother and son time together, and the rest was history. It was love at first sight and now they were engaged.

Just like when Eleanor arrived, Louis opened the window. Mrs Malik noticed and put a hand on her sons shoulder to get his attention, she made a gesture to their open window with a smile and then she waved at them. They waved back with big smiles. Zayn and Perrie laughed at them and Zayn made a sign with his hand that they would be joining them soon. 

Just as they were about to go and get their rooms, a black Limousine made it’s way through the gates. It hooted and caught everyones attention. The Limousine had two Irish flags on either side of the front. Louis laughed and looked at Eleanor and they said with one mouth: ”Niall.”

And indeed as soon as driver opened the door, a blonde boy literally jumped out of the car, smiling up at the sunshine. Niall was the son to the richest man in Ireland, and his father and Louis father had been friends since they were young. 

Niall spotted Zayn and Perrie and his smile grew even bigger. He waved excitedly, nearly jumping up and down on the spot. Perrie and Zayn laughed and waved back in return and then Zayn pointed up at Louis and Eleanor’s heads that were still sticking out of the big window. Niall waved at them too and were now actually jumping up and down in pure excitement. ”That cute idiot.” Louis said and smiled fondly at his friend. 

Louis turned around only to notice that Eleanor wasn't next to him anymore. He looked around and found her sprawled out on the white couch. 

”You have a habit of making yourself at home everywhere, you know that?” He said teasingly and sat down on the edge of the coffee table. 

She laughed. ”What you mean like this?” She sprawled out even more and pretended to drool. Louis just rolled his eyes and picked up his phone again. 

After a couple of minutes Eleanor broke the silence. ”So Louis..” Louis looked up from his phone. ”..have you met some cute boy who stolen your heart yet?” She had a teasing smile on her lips but he could see in her eyes that she was serious. 

He blushed a little ”No.. not yet no.” 

She tilted her head a little and said ”Well you don’t have to wait long, who can resist ’prince charming’?” she winked and smirked.

Just as Louis was about to insist they heard someone knock on the door. 

Louis got up and opened the door and almost fell over because Niall had attacked him with a giant hug. ”Oh my god, hi Niall!” He said and laughed as the Irish boy let go of him.

”Hiiiiiiiiii Louuuuuuuuu!” Niall said and bounced into the room. 

Louis just shook his head and turned to Zayn and Perrie that stood in the doorframe. ”Hi guys!” He greeted them and gave them both a hug. 

”So we’re just waiting for Liam then?” Zayn asked. Louis nodded and followed them into his room. 

After a couple of minutes of greetings and hugs, they sat down in the sofa again. Except Niall, who sat down on the bed with crossed legs, and Louis who stood next to the window looking for Liam. 

”I hope he brings some food.” Niall said and looked down at his hands which currently lacked something to munch on.  


”You and your food” Eleanor teased.

Zayn said something too, but Louis didn’t pay attention. He thought he had spotted Liam’s car. It was a black SUV with tinted windows, and Louis knew that Liam’s family owned one of those. 

”He´s here, I think” he said cheerily. 

Eleanor jumped out of the sofa and stood next to him, they both watched as the black SUV drove up to the big stone staircase under them. The driver jumped out of the car and ran around to open the door. 

Out of the car climbed, well, not Liam. 

”That´s certainly not Liam” Eleanor laughed ”that’s sir Twist!”. 

Eleanor was right. The kind looking man climbed out of the car and said something to the driver. Then he turned around, and just like Zayn, helped someone out of the car. 

”That must be his new fiancee!” Eleanor cooed.

The woman who climbed out of the car was really beautiful with dark brown hair and a big white smile. Louis had no idea that sir Twist had gotten engaged, but he was very happy for the man because he was one of the friendliest human beings Louis had ever had pleasure to meet. 

He was about too turn around and ask Eleanor how she’d knew about the engagement when she pointed out the window ”And I think she brought her son with her!” Louis followed her gaze and saw a young man with chocolate brown, curly hair, step out of the car.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I hope you like this chapter! I'm pretty happy with it myself. xx

The curly-haired boy looked up at the castle with a excited smile, and Louis found that he couldn’t tear his eyes away from him. The boy was possibly the most beautiful human being Louis had ever had the pleasure to lay his eyes on. 

Even from this far away Louis could see the boy’s breathtaking smile, and when he tore his gaze away from the young mans face, and let his eyes wander down along his body, he found that his legs went on forever.

Louis was startled when the legs that belonged to this fantastic creature (he could not be human, it was impossible..) started to move.

Louis watched as the boy followed his mother and sir Twist into the castle, and left Louis staring at the front door which the boy had disappeared behind.

He returned to reality when Eleanor snapped her fingers in front of his face. ”What?” he asked, still a bit dazed.

”I asked if you needed a towel, because you were kind of almost drooling.” Eleanor teased.

He stuck his tongue out at her and sat down on the bed next to Niall. And luckily, it seemed like no one else had noticed his little ’nearly drooling’ moment. 

After a while Liam showed up, muttering something about the traffic, he really didn’t like to be late. Maybe it had something to do with that his father was a highly respected bank manager. 

When they had greeted him with hugs and sympathetic pats on his back they started to discuss the most important thing of this week.

”So, which day should we have the party?” Zayn asked.

They had started this tradition four years ago, when they were eighteen and carefree. When they all would come together at events like this, they had to celebrate it with a party. So they find a place, where they hopefully won’t get caught, and bring lots of alcohol, and then they get shitfaced drunk and have the time of their lives. 

”What about friday? Eleanor suggested ”It’s four days from today, and i’m sure we can find a place in that time.” 

They all considered her suggestion for a while, and then Niall broke the silence. ”Yeah that would be kind of perfect, because they serve breakfast later on saturday!” No one even questioned how he knew that.

When they all had agreed on that friday was a good day for the party, they decided that they would go placeforparty-hunting tomorrow. After that, they had split up in order to get ready for the welcome dinner later that evening. If they were late to that, their parents would kill them. Well not kill them maybe, but they would be grounded for a eternity.

When all the others had left Louis’ room, he could finally let the thoughts of the beautiful boy he’d seen before take over his mind. He had pushed away the thoughts when they discussed the party, afraid that Eleanor would see his glassy eyes or dreamy smile and comment on it. But now when she wasn’t around he could simply let his thoughts wander. 

He stepped in to the shower and considered for a moment if he should have a wank or not, then he remembered that he would probably see the boy at the welcome dinner later, probably all dressed up and nice, and just the thought of that made him shiver of arousement. He quickly turned the water to icing cold and washed his hair. 

\-----------

Two hours later, Louis stepped in to the great hall with his parents. They were meant to mingle a bit before the big welcome dinner. 

It was quite boring standing there next to his parents and small talk with all different kinds of people. But he had his ‘prince charming’ smile on and pretended to enjoy hearing about mrs Hollingberry’s latest trip to the vet with her twenty-something cats. 

After half an hour Louis had had enough, and excused himself and quickly searched trough the crowd of dressed up people to find his friends. He found them standing close to the door that led to the glorious dining hall. He had a feeling that Niall had chosen that spot. 

He walked over to them and bowed deep. ”My ladies and gentlemen, it’s an honour to be here, next to the dining hall, with you!” he said with an exaggerated accent. His friends laughed at his stupidity. ”Seen any interesting people yet?” Louis asked them then, in his normal voice.

”Well mrs Hollingberry is always interesting” Zayn said and chuckled as he watched the very short, stout, woman try to make her way through the crowd.

”And I have seen the chef of the kitchen, but unfortunately he disappeared before I could speak to him” Niall told the group.

Louis petted his eager friend on the shoulder and then turned to listen to Perry who told Eleanor about latest gossip about the wealthy people who visited the designers store she worked at. 

After a while he lost interest in what the girls talked about, and soon he found himself having a heated discussion about football with Liam and Niall, a discussion that were abruptly interrupted when Eleanor poked his shoulder and made a small gesture towards his parents. 

First he didn’t understand what Eleanor wanted him to see. His parents stood on the exact same spot he left them, right in the middle of the great hall, and they were talking to possibly boring people. He gave Eleanor a confused look and was right about to continue the discussion with Liam and Niall when she nudged him in the side with her elbow. 

”What?” he asked, annoyed. 

She just rolled her eyes and said; ”Curly hair.”

He looked over again and now he saw what people his parents were talking to, it was sir Twist with his new fiancee and her son! For a moment he just stood there and watched his parents have a conversation with them. It wasn’t until Eleanor pushed him, a little in the back, that he moved. 

He walked quickly through the crowd of high ranking people, only having the curly-haired boy’s suit-clad backside in mind. When he had a few yards left he realised that he had no idea what he would do when he got to the boy.

It turned out that his father took care of that problem because suddenly he said; ”Look here comes our son.” 

Louis walked up to them and placed himself next to his father, so that he stood opposite the boy. 

Finally he could take a good look at the young man, and when he did so his breath hitched. The boy was not beautiful, he was perfect. His pale skin was flawless, his pink, full lips formed a lazy smile and his eyes were green and sparkling with life. 

”Louis” his father’s voice brought him back from his dazed mode. He looked up at his father and hoped that he had reacted immediately and that it hadn’t taken several times to get an reaction from him.

”Louis, you know sir Twist.” his father pointed out.

”Yes.” Louis said, smiling, and shook sir Twist’s hand.

”Always a pleasure sir Louis!” sir Twist chuckled. 

Sir Twist was a duke and had always been one of their closest family friends, so Louis was baffled that no one had told him about his engagement. If they had done that, they maybe could have warned him about sir Twist’s soon-to-become stepson too. Louis could see in the corner of his eye that the boy studied him, and he really had to concentrate to keep up with what his father and sir Twist said. 

”This, Louis, is sir Twist’s fiancee Anne Cox.”

Louis smiled at her and shook her hand. ”Lovely to meet you mrs Cox.”

”It’s lovely to meet you too sir Louis.” Her voice was warm and so was her smile.

Then finally, his father made a gesture to the boy right in front of him; ”And this is her son, Harold Styles.”  


”Harry.” The boy corrected and gave Louis a toothy grin and shook Louis hand. 

His hand was smooth, warm, and very big. Louis might have given this more though if his mind wasn’t very occupied by Harry’s smiling face. The boy had dimples! Louis once again changed his mind: the boy wasn’t just perfect. He was amazingly, beautifully, immoderately perfect!

It was a miracle that he heard his father’s voice over the very unmanly screams in his head.

”Harry here, is two years younger than you, and he’s got a sister that’s two years older than you.” 

Louis nodded, still staring at Harry, hoping that his smile was friendly and not creepy at all. He was brought back from his trance by the trumpets that announced that it was time to enter the dining hall. 

Just because Louis was of royal blood, he and his parents would enter the room first. (It was some stupid tradition from way back when the royalties were considered gods.) So when the doors opened, his parents walked with grace into the dining hall, and Louis followed them, one step behind, just as he had been taught. 

The dining hall was magnificent! The walls and the floor were made by stone and the whole left side was covered in windows, so you had an excellent view over the garden behind the castle. Seven long tables, adorned with white cloths and several vases with floral sets, took up most of the space and the chairs that belonged to the tables looked comfortable. The last rays of sun for the day shone in through the windows and made everything bathe in a orange and pink light.

At events like this they always sat in the same place, right in the middle. Like in the middle of the middle. Very centred. So they took their places in the middle of the middle table and waited for everybody else to settle down.

Louis sat next to his mother, with his back against the windows. He watched the other people seek out their places, Eleanor and her parents a little bit down at the same table as himself, Niall and his family at the table behind him. He searched for Liam or Zayn and Perrie, but before he could spot any of them, his attention was drawn to the table right in front of him. At the same spot as at his table, but opposite, mr Twist sat down with mrs Cox and Harry. 

Harry looked up and cought his gaze, for a moment Louis brain panicked and forgot how to use his facial muscles and form a smile. But soon enough he pulled himself together and settled for a polite smile. Harry smirked back and luckily, the protagonist of this week, his slightly heavier aunt, appeared and Harry disappeared from his field of vision. It was lucky because Louis jaws had dropped when he’d seen Harry smile in the light of the sunset, and thanks to his aunt Harry had probably missed the whole thing. 

His aunt stood up and the buzzing sound of people having low conversations faded out until it was completely silent.

”My dear friends and family...” Aunt Hilda’s voice echoed in the great hall. ”...it’s a pleasure to see so many of you here today to celebrate my birthday! I bet this week will be superb, and I have planned some amazing activities for us to relish! But for now, enjoy your food and have a nice evening!”

Aunt Hilda sat down in her chair opposite him with a satisfied smile. 

”It’s good to see you aunt Hilda.” Louis said. 

”Louis! My favourite niece! How are you doing?” Aunt Hilda coddled.

The rest of the meal was dedicated to answering her questions about his life, and Louis wished that his parents would break in and start talking about something else, because he could feel the question he really didn’t wanna answer to hanging in the air.

It was when they enjoyed dessert, a chocolate cake that melted in his mouth, she shot him the question. 

”Have you met any nice girl yet Louis?” 

He choked and had to take a big swig of the dessert wine not to start coughing like mad. 

”Ehm..no, no girl yet, no.” He stammered and bowed his head and pretended to inspect the last piece of chocolate cake that was left on his plate, so that she wouldn’t see that he was blushing.

”Oh, too bad for a nice young man like you.” His aunt sighed and stretched over the table so she could pat his shoulder.

When she did that Louis got an splendid view of a confused looking Harry. 

Harry stared at his plate with untouched chocolate cake and looked utterly confused. First Louis didn’t understand what he was doing, the cake was delicious! Why didn’t he eat it? Then Harry looked at his mother that was eating the chocolate cake just like everybody else, he leaned closer to her and whispered something. She pointed to one of the little spoons next to his plate and smiled at her son. When Harry picked up the spoon and started eating, Louis understood. Harry didn’t know which spoon you ate dessert with, and he didn’t wanna do anything wrong so instead he had just stared at the cake. 

Louis smiled a little fondly at the boy and then his view was blocked again by aunt Hilda. Before his aunt could ask anymore awkward questions he turned to his mother and started talking about god knows what. 

He had no more opportunity to look at Harry that night, but later when he laid in the soft white sheets in his bed, his mind was occupied with green sparkly eyes, brown soft curls and dimpled smiles.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a little while! This chapter is a little bit longer than the others and you will read some things from Harry's pov! Once again, sorry for grammatical errors or other such things. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Louis woke up the next morning by the sun that shone in through his window. It looked like it would be a beautiful summer day. A beautiful summer day that they would probably spend outside playing tennis or badminton or something else as stupid. Sure he loved sports, but he was totally useless at tennis and badminton.

Liam was probably already down at the pitch, doing some weird warm-up exercises. Louis snorted by the mere thought.

He took a quick shower before he threw on some gray jeans, a blue button-up and a pair of vans, then he devoted ten minutes to get his hair perfect. He sprayed on some perfume too, you know, just in case. And then he headed to the dining hall to get some breakfast and maybe sneak a glance at Harry. 

Louis wasn’t surprised to find Niall already in the dining hall, very much occupied with stuffing his mouth with food. Liam sat next to him and seemed to be reading a newspaper that he’d gotten somewhere. Okay, he wasn’t down at the tennis pitch already. Louis might congratulate him for that. 

There was no trace of the others yet and he guessed that they were still sleeping, they probably had rooms where the sun didn’t shine in and disturbed your very needed beauty sleep. 

Yesterday at the welcome dinner they had special places to sit, and was served their food by waiters. Today they could sit wherever they wanted to, and at the end of the hall there was a large breakfast buffet. As Louis walked over to the buffet table he checked the dining hall for Harry, he sadly did not find him so instead he served himself some pancakes, a bagel, a glass of orange juice and a cup of tea.

He sat down opposite Niall and Liam. ”Good morning boys! Congratulations Liam.” 

Niall waved at him and managed a big smile even if his mouth was full with food.

Liam looked up from his newspaper. ”Congratulations for what?” He asked suspiciously.

Louis avoided the question and asked instead; ”Do you know what weather it is on friday? Maybe it’s in that magical paper thing of yours there!”

Liam just rolled his eyes but obeyed and checked the weather rapport. ”It will be quite warm and sunny, how come?”  


”Well, I thought that maybe we could have the party outside?” Louis said and shrugged. 

”Outside?” Eleanor sat down next to him with a bowl of cereal.

”Yeah, it was just an idea that struck me.” He took a sip of his tea.

”Won’t it be easier to get caught outside?” Liam asked.

”And we won’t be able to have any music.” Niall had finally eaten up and could now speak.

Louis shrugged again. ”It was just an idea.” He turned around to look for Perrie and Zayn, who was in charge of music. 

They all had different tasks when it came to these parties. Zayn and Perrie was in charge of music, Niall fixed food, Liam was in charge of safety (He didn’t drink that much, which meant that he could watch out for everyone else that got completely shitfaced.), and Eleanor and Louis fixed alcohol. 

However he didn’t find Zayn and Perrie, which didn’t surprise him that much because Zayn had a really hard time waking up in the morning. Louis, however, wasn’t very upset when he didn’t find them, because something much more interesting caught his eye. 

Harry stood alone a few steps into the dining hall and seemed to be scanning the room. He looked breathtaking gorgeous in tight black jeans and a plain white t-shirt. He took some uncertain steps further into the room and then he stopped again, he seemed very unsure of what to do and where to go. 

Louis wasn’t really sure what made him do it, and why he did it, but he jumped up from his place at the table and walked slowly over to the buffet table again. He peered over his shoulder to see if Harry still stood in the middle of the dining hall, and his heart jumped when he saw that Harry was, instead of just standing there looking uncertain, approaching him, or well the buffet table. 

He tried to come up with a plan on how to act cool when Harry reached the buffet table but miserably failed and was left just staring at one of the plates with fruit on. 

Why was he so nervous about this boy that he had never even spoken to? He was a prince for gods sake, he was used to talk in front of thousands of people! But this boy made him forget everything about language and forming words and such things. He slapped himself on the inside. ”Get it together Tommo!” He thought to himself. Then he heard the clatter of someone taking a plate and cutlery and turned around, only to be met by the green orbs he knew that he would never forget. 

\-----------

Harry’s pov:

When Harry opened his eyes he wasn’t really sure where he was. This room was much bigger than his own in Holmes Chapel, and much brighter. Then everything came back to him.

Right, he was in a castle, with possible all the most highly respected people in britain (and ireland too if he was correct), and he had an own room. (bless that!) 

He turned around in his sheets and stretched out his long body and took a look at the watch on his nightstand, it was 9 am. He suddenly sat up rapidly. When did they serve breakfast? Had he missed it? He couldn’t remember! 

He cursed as he jumped into the shower and as soon as he was done he quickly put on the first thing he found in his suitcase (a pair of black jeans and a white t-shirt), he rushed into the bathroom again and brushed his teeth and then he took a quick look in the full-length mirror. He ran his hand through his hair and gave an approving nod to himself, then sprayed on some perfume and put on his black converse and rushed to the dining hall.

When he stepped into the dining hall a couple of minutes later he felt very confused. On the place where he sat yesterday there now sat two, for him, completely unknown people. He looked around in the room and saw that people sat scattered at the tables and were eating breakfast. At least he didn’t seem to be late. 

He saw the buffet table at the end of the large hall and took some steps against it and then he stopped again. What if they had some rules about what to do and not to do at a breakfast like this? And what if they had some unwritten rules of what to do and not to do? 

Seriously, all this upperclass manners made him tired and he just wanted to fit in. He had tried to get as much information as possible about how to act yesterday, in the car on the way to this place, by Robin but he had just told Harry that it would resolve itself and that he didn’t need to worry. Look now. He had no idea what to do and he probably looked like an idiot when he was just standing here. 

A movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he turned his head to look what it was. It was the prince, sir Louis, who had gotten up from his seat and were now slowly approaching the buffet table. It was a little weird seeing someone that he might have a little (a big) celebrity-crush on walk casually to get breakfast. 

Harry had always thought that prince Louis was very handsome whenever he saw him in the magazines or on TV. He might even have googled his name a couple (a lot) of times. And he might have made a happy dance when Robin told him that Louis would be here when he told him about this trip. But when he had seen him yesterday he had to change his thoughts, because the prince wasn’t just handsome, he was flawless! 

Harry hadn’t even noticed that he himself had started walking, towards Louis! Stupid brain for making decisions without his approvement. At least he could tell himself that he walked towards the buffet table and not Louis. 

When he reached the table with all different kinds of delicious food and fruit, he tried to make as little noise as possible. But of course with his bad luck he had to clatter with his plate and his cutlery. 

Louis turned around probably alarmed by the sound and Harry was stupid enough to look right at him. He was met with eyes blue as the sky outside. He tried to look away he really did but Louis’ beauty was enchanting. 

”Hi.” Louis said with a calm voice.

Just Louis’ voice made Harry smile and he felt much more confident.

”Hey.”

He was a little surprised how calm he sounded himself.

Louis smiled at him. ”You know, I can really recommend the bagels.” He pointed at the basket full of bagels right in front of Harry.

”Oh, um, thanks.”

Harry did a mental facepalm, wow that was a really intelligent answer. 

Louis, however, didn’t seem to notice his lack of intelligence because he still smiled and said cheerily; ”Well I guess I see you later down at the pitch.” 

\-----------

Louis pov:

Harry looked disconcerted at him. ”What?” he said, baffled. 

It seemed like no one had told Harry about all traditions and customs they had at these events, Louis felt compassion with the boy, it could not be easy coming to a place like this and don’t have any idea of what to do, where to go or what to say. 

”Ehm, yeah. Tennis.”

If no one else had told Harry about this stuff then he would do it, because he didn’t like to see the angel-like boy all confused and uncertain.

”It’s good weather outside, which often means that we are forced to play badminton or tennis.”

Harry nodded slowly, looking a little anxious, so Louis quickly added; ”It’s not that I don’t like sports, but well badminton and tennis aren’t my favourites you know. I’m kind of miserable at both.”

He laughed a little and to his delight Harry’s face expression had turned from anxious to amused. 

”Well i’m not that good at those kinds of sports either.” Harry admitted with a little smile.

”Good, then i’m not alone!” Louis joked and Harry laughed. It was a beautiful sound! It seemed like everything with Harry was beautiful. Like his voice! When Louis first heard it today he was astonished. He hadn’t thought about it yesterday, he was occupied with being seduced by Harry’s dimples, but Harry’s voice was really deep, and really soft and lazy. It was that kind of voice that you could listen to forever. 

”Maybe we could play a match later then? The worst against the worst?” Louis asked Harry and smirked.

”Yeah, I would quite like that.” Harry grinned and his dimples appeared. 

And then their little conversation was interrupted by sir Twist and Harry’s mother. 

”Harry! I guessed you were here already when you did not open the door.” sir Twist put his hand on Harry’s shoulder.

”Yes, I forgot which time they served breakfast so I kind of rushed here.” Harry said and looked a little embarrassed.

Louis once again felt bad for the boy, no wonder that he had looked confused when he entered the room.

”But you were here in good time.” Louis spoke up and gave Harry a resurrecting smile. Harry smiled back and looked like he were about to say something but sir Twist beat him to it; 

”Sir Louis! I didn’t see you! Good morning!”  


”Good morning sir, and good morning mrs Cox.” Louis replied to them with a grin and then he turned to Harry again. ”I will see you later then?”

Harry smiled and nodded.

”Good!” He snatched some strawberries from the fruit plate in front of him and then he headed back to his table.

”Well you were gone for a long time.” Eleanor commented as soon as he sat down again. She winked at him and he gave her arm a light punch.

”Yes I was talking to Harry.”  


”Who’s Harry?” Niall asked him.

”The guy I just talked to.” Louis said, jerking his head towards the buffet table. Both Liam and Niall looked over at Harry. 

”Oh, sir Twist’s fiancee’s son?” Liam asked.

Louis nodded and stuffed his mouth full with pancakes.

”He has the room next to mine, seems like a nice enough lad.” Niall said.

Louis just nodded again, but inside jealousy was building up in him. He wanted to have the room next to Harry! 

His plans on how to change rooms with Niall was disturbed by Zayn and Perrie who finally had made it to the dining hall. Zayn looked tired and didn’t say anything to anyone before he had finished his cup of coffee. Then he looked around at them and said; ”Good morning, fools.”

Zayn sat next to Louis so he felt that it was his mission to hit Zayn in the back of his head with Liam’s newspaper. He got a round of applause for that! Then he turned around to Zayn again who grinned back at him. ”Now when everyones here, we can discuss the party!”

They decided that it probably wasn’t a good idea to have the party outside and that if they didn’t find any other place, Louis room would be their plan B. They discussed the alcohol that Louis and Eleanor had brought and Zayn told them that he got one of his servants to drive out here with his sound system on thursday. Niall said that he would go and talk to the kitchen staff later that day.

When that was done the conversation floated over to today’s activities.

”I really don’t want to play tennis!” Zayn whined.

”Oh come on! Tennis is a great work out!” Liam said excitedly.

Louis thought back on that it was a miracle that Liam wasn’t already out on the tennis pitch and burst out in laughter. The others looked at him with wondering eyes. When he had calmed down enough he said once again; ”Congratulations Liam!”  


”For what?!” Liam said annoyed by his behavior.

Before he had to answer Liam question Niall slipped in with a comment; ”Well i’m gonna play tennis too.”

Zayn facepalmed and Liam looked happy that someone wanted to join him.

”Louis, how are we gonna dodge this activity this time?” Zayn looked at him with sly eyes.

Louis fidgeted. ”Ehm, well actually.. i’m gonna play tennis too.”  


”What!?” Zayn looked astounded and slightly insulted.

”Well yeah.” Louis shrugged.

”Great!” Liam said and looked like a child on christmas morning, Louis had never ever not ditched one of these activities and Liam always wanted as many people as possible to participate.

”You are completely out of your mind.” Zayn shook his head.

”Do I have to play too, just so you’re not without a partner?” Eleanor asked.

”Actually, I already have a partner.” 

Louis turned around to look at Harry, and it was like Harry knew that he would do that. Because in the exact same minute, Harry turned around to look at Louis. None of them tried to hide the smiles that was forming on their faces.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took so much longer time than I had planned. I needed to spend some quality time with my boyfriend and then I got to know that i'm quite far behind in school. But life's about priorities and from now on i'm gonna try to priority this much more than I did this week. So sorry that it took so much time! Other than that i'm quite happy with how this chapter turned out! Keep giving me feedback please!
> 
> Enyoy!

Louis was already sweating, and he hadn’t even started playing yet.

He stood outside in the sun, next to the pitch, with Niall and Liam. They were watching the older people, including their parents, who strolled around the pitch and chatted with each other. Some of them, who were too old or too lazy to play, sat and watched the tennis players on the terrace in the backyard of the castle. Zayn, Perrie and Eleanor had ditched it totally and was instead searching for a place to have the party.

Louis stretched his neck and searched for Harry. But yet there was no sign of the boy’s brown curls.

After breakfast he had headed back to his room and changed his clothes to his workout wear: black gym shorts, a red t-shirt and grey track shoes. Then he headed to Niall’s room (And that had nothing to do with that he had the room next to Harry.) and found that Liam was already there. They waited for Niall to change clothes too and then they went down to the tennis pitch. 

It was a hot summer day and all Louis really wanted was to lay down in the grass in the backyard with Harry and talk about everything and nothing, get to know the boy and at the same time work on his tan. And look at Harry’s body, all sprawled out on the grass...shirtless...

Someone poked his shoulder and he awoke from his little daydream. He turned around and saw Harry looking down at him. Wait what? Had Harry alway’s been that tall? Now when they were so close to each other Louis noticed that Harry was much bigger than him. He looked up at Harry’s face and pouted.

”You are taller than me.”

Harry laughed. ”Well hello at you too, ready to lose a game?”

Louis snorted but he couldn’t hide his amused smile. ”You will only win because you are a giant.”

Harry laughed again and petted Louis head with one of his giant hands. ”I promise you that I will play fair, and don’t take advantage of my height.” 

Louis giggled and was just about to go out on the pitch and play the best game of tennis of his life, but when he turned around he was met with Liam and Niall’s curious eyes.

”Oh, eh, Harry. This is Liam and Niall. My friends, who are much better than me at tennis.”

Harry shook their hands.

”I feel sorry for you Harry that you will have to play against Louis, he’s useless at tennis.” Niall said with an evil smirk.

Harry smiled. ”Well i’m useless myself at tennis so that will not be a problem.”

Louis chose the mature gesture of sticking out his tongue at Niall before he stepped out on the pitch with Harry.

Harry looked lovely in his white gym shorts, a grey t-shirt and white sneakers. Louis admired him while he himself pretended to do some warm up exercises. (He felt ridiculous, but everyone else was doing it.) Once again his gaze stuck on Harry’s legs. They were ridiculously long and muscular. Oh god, Harry was really fit. 

Well, if Harry could show off his good legs then he himself could show off the best part of his body! He turned his back to Harry and bent down and let his hands touch the ground and then he pretended to stretch his back. He wiggled his ass a little and dared to sneak a glance at Harry. 

His little trick had worked, because Harry had stopped doing his own warm up and were now instead staring at Louis, or well, Louis ass. Harry’s cheeks burned red and as soon as Louis stood upright again and looked at Harry, he turned away so Louis wouldn’t notice his obvious blush. It was an underestimation to say that Louis was happy. 

”Ready to play Harry?” He shouted to the boy on the other side of the net.

Harry simply nodded.

Louis motioned to two butlers and they ran up to them and gave them their rackets and a ball. It looked like Harry would be the first to serve. He threw the ball in the air and smashed it with his racket and Louis first thought was that Harry had lied, he wasn’t bad at tennis at all. Then it hit Louis that the ball was on it’s way to him, in a rapid speed, and that he might want to hit the ball with his racket or he would look like an complete idiot. 

To his surprise he actually hit the ball and it flew in a neat arc over the net. And from that moment he and Harry started a heated game of tennis. Louis had to really concentrate to not just stand and admire Harry’s curls that bounced and danced around his head when he ran around the pitch to hit the ball. 

Close to the end of the game Harry led by one point and they both were tired and sweaty. Maybe that was the reason that when Louis threw himself sideways to hit the ball, he lost his balance and fell headlong and hit the ground with a loud bang. He did not faint luckily, but he remained on the ground because his head hurt like hell and he wasn’t sure if he had broken something. 

”Louis!” Harry rushed up to him and kneeled beside his body.

”Lou, are you okay?” His voice was full with worry and Louis felt his heart flutter at the nickname.

Louis moved his various body parts gently to see if something was broken, it looked like he had been lucky. Nothing hurt too much. ”Yeah I think so.” 

He sat up and smiled at a very relieved looking Harry. 

”Louis baby, are you alright?” His mother stormed out on the pitch with his father and Niall and Liam not far behind.

”Yes mom i’m alright, it’s just a scratch...”  


”You have to be careful!”  


”I’m fine mom...”  


”What if you had broken something!”  


”Mom i’m okay! I think I just need to rest for a bit.”

He was just about to lift himself of the ground when Harry reached out a hand. He took it without any doubt and Harry helped him up. God, Harry was strong too!

”Are you sure that you don’t need a doctor to check you?” His mother said worryingly.

”Yes mom! I’m gonna go to my room and rest now okay?”

She sighed and nodded. She knew well how stubborn her son could be.

He got a pat on the back by his father and he sounded much calmer than his mother when he spoke; ”You will be fine. Will you be down for lunch later?”  


”Yes sir, absolutely.” 

”Are you alright?” Liam asked when his parents had walked back to their own tennis pitch.

”Yeah.. My head hurts, but i’m alive.You know I said tennis was not my sport.”

He tried to sound positive and alert but really, he felt exhausted. Liam and Niall seemed to buy his positive attitude though.

”Yea, you should probably keep away from tennis.” Liam admitted mildly.

”See you at lunch then?” Niall asked.

”Yeah, see you later guys.” They strolled back to their own pitch too and now it was just Harry left. 

”I’m gonna head to my room and get some rest.” Louis said. He really didn’t want to leave Harry but his headache was killing him.

”Okay, ehm, do you want to have company?”

What was Harry trying to indicate? Because the pictures that formed in Louis’ head was not child-friendly. He stared puzzled at Harry.

\-----------

Harry’s pov:

Louis was just staring at him.

Oh god, did he say something wrong? He thought over what he had just said and...oh..oh...OH! No that sounded really weird and creepy! He had to fix this!

”To your room I mean but really you should not be alone if your head hurts that much because what if you faint and no ones there and..”

Oh god. Now he was rambling. He fell silent and looked down at the ground.

”I’d be very happy if you could keep me company Harry.”

Harry looked up again at the sound of Louis soft voice. Louis wanted Harry to keep him company? ”Oh, okay.” 

They started walking back to castle and both were silent for a while, and then Louis started talking. ”You lied, by the way.”  


”What?”  


”About you being bad at tennis. That was a lie.” Louis smiled at him.

”Oh. Well in that case, you lied too. Because you weren’t bad at tennis either.” He smirked back at Louis.

”Actually i’m as surprised as you are! It was the first time I played without actually failing totally! Or well, I fell. But you know except that, I have never played that well.” Louis told him.

Harry thought for a moment and then he said; ”Well I have to admit, I have never played that well before either.” 

They walked in to castle, chattering about tennis, and much to soon they stood outside Louis door.

”Yeah, it was a little weird seeing the Prime Minister play tennis. But it was even weirder to see how good he was at it.” Louis finished his story.

They laughed and then fell silent.

If something was really weird, Harry thought, it was to stand here and chat with his celebrity crush. Outside the door to his room. Or well the weird part was that it felt so natural. Of course he felt nervous but he had a strange feeling of that it wasn’t just because Louis was famous. 

”You know, I think you were right about what you said before.” Louis said suddenly.

Right about what? He had said quite many things so it was a bit hard figuring out which thing Louis was referring to. ”About what?” He asked.

”About me being alone right now. You were probably right when you said that it’s not a good idea.” 

The butterflies in Harry’s stomach came to life and he felt his cheeks getting a little red, which got the memory of Louis, stretching his back, to come back to Harry. His cheeks burned even hotter and he had to look down at the ground for a moment to collect himself. 

”Oh, well..eh..yeah.”

Once again he came up with a very intelligent answer. Stupid brain. Now it was time to say something that actually made some sense.

”Ehm..do you want me to, you know, keep you company?”

He really hoped that it was the right thing to say, what if Louis had meant that he wanted Harry to go and get one of his friends?

”That sounds like a really good idea!” Louis said with a big smile.

Inside Harry sighed with relief. ”Okay, but..eh..i’m kind of sweaty and yeah. Maybe I should go and take a shower first.”

Louis nodded. ”Well i’m kind of sweaty and gross too so I should probably take a shower myself. But..eh..you can come back here as soon as you’re done? I mean if you want to.”

Harry nodded, perhaps a little too enthusiastically, but Louis didn’t seem to care.

”Okay see you in a bit then!” He said and put the key in the lock. 

As soon as Louis had disappeared behind his door, Harry sprinted back to his own room. He literately jumped in to shower and hummed with approval as the hot water massaged his shoulders. He scrubbed his body clean from the stupid covering thing Robin had given him. Robin told him would last through two showers, and that point had been proven this morning when he had showered and it not had disappeared. But he was tired of it right now and when he was sweaty it made his skin itch. 

When he stepped out of the shower, he took a look at himself in the full-length mirror. He had always thought that he looked the best when he was naked. He was happy with his body, satisfied with his abs and his long legs, and proud over the ink that told the world all his secrets. 

It was the ink, that Robin wanted to hide. He had given him the coverage batter and told him that even if he really liked Harry’s tattoos, some of the others, the older people mostly, could see it as a violation and think that it was indelicate. Harry, that just wanted to fit in, had taken the coverage batter and covered up his tattoos on his arms, the ones on his chest and stomach didn’t need coverage, his t-shirt took care of that. 

He sighed. He didn’t have the energy to cover himself up again, so instead he got dressed in a black t-shirt, black skinny jeans and he covered himself up in a grey hoodie. He shook the last drops of water out of his hair and put on some perfume. Then he looked at the watch. Was Louis done yet? It had gone half an hour since they parted. 

Harry decided that he probably should wait a little bit longer and sat down on his bed. He scrolled through his instagram feed but was soon bored and looked at the watch again. He had no patience what so ever and soon enough he put on his shoes and walked back to Louis’ room.

He smiled big to himself, and if someone saw him they probably would think that he was crazy, but he was happier than he had been in a long time, and it was all because of Louis.

He stopped outside Louis’ door and took a couple of deep breaths before he knocked. He heard steps approaching the door and then Louis opened and looked at him with a bright smile. 

\-----------

Half an hour later, Harry sat down in the bed next to Louis.

After Louis had showed him his room (That was inconceivable much larger than his own.) he had insisted on that he needed to lay down and rest and that Harry should sit next to him and watch him. He hadn’t got so much rest though because they had talked and laughed so much that Harry’s belly hurt. 

”So, Harry. Who are you?” Louis had asked with piercing eyes when he had made himself comfortable in the bed. 

First Harry had answered that he was no one special really, but Louis did not accept that.

”Stop being shy now Harry.” He had said. ”I want to know everything.”

Harry had smiled a little at that and then he started to tell Louis about himself;

”Well, my name is Harry Edward Styles, I was born on the first of February 1994, so that means i’m twenty years old, and i’m from a village called Holmes Chapel, which is located in Cheshire.”

He stopped himself, what more could he tell Louis about himself? He wasn’t an interesting person really.

”Ehm..I really like music and I love to sing and..”  


”Ohh!” Louis howled. ”I love to sing too!”

And that was all they needed to start an interesting conversation.

They soon figured out that they had nearly the same taste in music, both loved Arctic Monkey’s and Ed Sheeran, and both agreed on that they didn’t understand techno.

Harry laughed until he cried at Louis’ imitation of a DJ: he threw his arms around, headbanged and did a lot of machine-like sounds.

After Louis’ little performance the room was hot and the sun that shone in through the window didn’t help at all. Harry was nearly sweating again and without thinking he took off his hoodie. 

He realised his mistake too late. He heard a gasp escape from Louis throat and he couldn’t find the courage to look up at him and meet his chocked eyes.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is a little late, sorry! But this chapter is longer than the others and there's much more going on so I hope that makes up for it. There's much things going on in school right now, we have something called "national test's" in english. And the result on those test's are really important for our grades. (I live in sweden if you were wondering.)
> 
> Other than that i'm really happy with this chapter and thank you for the positive comments! 
> 
> Enjoy!

Louis pov:

Louis just stared at Harry’s arms in shock. The left was heavily tattooed and the right only had one simple text on it that he could not quite read right now. He heard himself gasp. He gasped both because he was shocked but also because this creature (He still hadn’t accepted that Harry was human.) that sat in front of him with unruly, curly hair, dimples, green eyes and (Apparently.) tattoos was the hottest thing he had ever seen. 

He realised that he gaped at Harry, that was looking down at his own thighs. 

”Harry you...you, you have tattoos!”

Harry didn’t look up from his knees. Louis reached out his hand and let it hover for a moment over Harry’s right arm, just over the ship that was inked there, before he stroked along the lines of the ship with his fingers. Harry flinched and looked up at Louis with startled eyes.

”I’m sorry! I just...I just needed to check if they were real.” He explained and pulled away his hand from Harry’s arm.

”Yes they are real.” Harry whispered, sounding distressed. 

Louis had so many questions flying around in his head. How had he done to cover them earlier? Why did he cover them? Why did he sound so sad? He once again reached forward and stroked over Harry’s tattoos.

”They are beautiful.” He said honestly.

It was probably his minor head injury that made him speak his thoughts out loud. 

”You think?” Harry finally looked up at him with eyes that grew big in surprise.

”Of course, I would not have said it if it wasn’t true.”

Harry looked genuinely dazed and happy over that. ”So you don’t hate me now?” 

Now it was Louis time to look surprised. ”Why on earth would I do that?”

Harry drew some circles on his thigh and then explained;

”Well Robin said that some of the people here would not quite accept me with my tattoos. So he gave me some coverage batter, probably really expensive considering the quality, and I just wanted to fit in so I used it. And I thought that maybe you would hate me if you saw my tattoos.” 

Louis was baffled over Harry’s explanation. Had Robin actually asked Harry to cover up his tattoos? That was ridiculous! If Harry had tattoos the people here just had to accept that! It did, after all, no difference in his personality! 

”Well Harry, I can’t speak for all the others, but I really like your tattoos and I think it’s a shame to cover them up.”

Harry blushed a little. ”I like them too.” He said and looked down at his own arms. 

Louis continued to stroke Harry’s arm. Harry didn’t seem to care anyway, he was too far away in thoughts. He spoke up after a couple of minutes though;

”I have more.” 

”What?” Louis had distractedly examined the anchor on Harry’s wrist and didn’t really catch what Harry had said.

”I have more. Tattoos, I mean.” 

Louis moved his hand away from Harry’s arm and looked up at him with expectant eyes. ”Really? Where?” 

Harry got up from the bed and took off his shirt without any doubt. His skin was exposed and Louis devoured the sight in front of him. 

Harry’s skin was slightly tanned and his chest was adorned by two swallows, his upper stomach sported a large butterfly. His eyes wandered down to Harry’s obvious sixpack and thoughts about licking both Harry’s tattoos and his sixpack made his cheek go pink. 

”What do you think?” Harry asked anxiously and bit his lip. 

Louis shook himself out of the suggestive images that spun around in his head. ”They really fit you.” He said in a soft voice. 

”Thanks.” A slight blush creeped on Harry’s cheeks. He put on his black t-shirt again and sat down on the bed. 

”Do they have any special meaning?” Louis asked him curiously and put his hand on his own stomach, like he could feel a tattoo appear there.

”Some of them do.” Harry said with a shrug. ”But some are just stupid doodles.” 

He thought about what Harry had said. It was probably a little early in there friendship (Or whatever this was.) to ask him about the stories behind some of the tattoos. So instead he said; 

”I would like to have a tattoo.”

Harry grinned. ”Yeah? Where? And what would it be?” 

Louis thought for a while. ”Well i’m not really sure...You know I can’t just tattoo anything I like.”

Harry nodded understanding.

”But if I would get something serious, I would maybe like a stag? On my arm. I think that would be quite cool.” 

”I like stags.” Harry said out of nowhere and Louis smiled, maybe a little too fondly, at the boy.

”But if I could get something not so serious, which I unfortunately can’t, I would probably tattoo a teacup on my arm or something.” He said and Harry laughed.

”Well that would be kind of epic.” 

Their conversation were interrupted by someone knocking on the door. Louis got up and opened the door and Zayn burst in to the room with a large smile.

”Really Tommo? Did you hurt yourself playing tennis? How the hell did you manage that?!” His loud laughter filled the room.

Louis gave him a superior look. ”I fell! It could’ve happened to anyone.” 

”Yeah sure. How’s my little princess then?” Zayn pinched his cheek and winked.

”I’m fine, thanks for asking.” Louis said sulkily.

Zayn were about to say something when he spotted Harry, still sitting in the bed, the only different thing with him was that he was now wearing his grey hoodie again to cover his tattoos. Zayn blinked surprised at him before turning to Louis again.

”Who’s this?” 

Before Louis could answer, Harry got up from the bed and walked up to them.

”I’m Harry, Harry Styles.” He reached out his hand and Zayn took it and they shook hands.

”Zayn Malik.” Zayn greeted him. ”So you are the poor man that had to play tennis against Louis?”

Harry laughed. ”Your friends doesn’t seem to have such a high opinion of your tennis skills.” 

Louis tried to look grumpy but his amused smile broke out from the ugly grimace. ”You only led by one point, so don’t get all cocky now.” He smirked at Harry. 

”I didn’t come here to listen to you two brag about your tennis skills.” Zayn said and rolled his eyes at them. ”I was wondering if you will come down to lunch with us? The others have already gone because Niall couldn’t contain himself.”

Louis was not surprised by that. ”Yeah, you coming Harry?” 

Harry was looking down at his fidgeting hands. ”I don’t want to intrude.” He said and frowned.

Zayn laughed. ”You will not intrude Harry! You’re probably more fun than Tommo here.” 

”Hey! I’m the funniest person you know and you know that!” He gave Zayn an insulted look.

Harry giggled (Giggled! It was probably the prettiest sound in the world!) and Louis turned to him.

”At least you can keep me company so i’m not alone with my assholes to friends.”

Harry laughed loud at that and nodded.

”Good com’n now i’m hungry!” Zayn ordered. 

”Can we walk past my room first, before we head to the dining hall, so I can leave my hoodie?” Harry asked when they were out in the corridor.

”Of course.” Zayn said. 

Louis knew that Harry wanted to cover up his tattoos with the coverage batter so that he wouldn’t do the same mistake again as before. So Louis maintained Zayn outside Harry’s room and gave him an exact description of his tumble on the tennis pitch (He knew that Zayn would want to hear that.) while Harry quickly covered himself up again. 

When Harry was done, he walked out of his room without the grey hoodie. Louis had to admit, the coverage batter was good. Because he couldn’t see a single sign of Harry’s lovely tattoos. 

After Zayn was done laughing at Louis clumsiness on the pitch, they strutted down to they dining hall to meet up with the rest of the gang.

\-----------

Harry’s pov:

Eating lunch with Louis and his friends was one of the funniest and strangest experiences in Harry’s life. 

When they walked in to the dining hall he had awkwardly waved at his mum and Robin, who were eating lunch with some people Harry didn’t know. His mom gave him two thumbs up, probably ridiculously happy that Harry had made some friends. She knew that Harry had been anxious about not fitting in here and to see that he was happy warmed her heart. 

They stopped when they reached the group of young people that sat at the end of one of the long tables, near the lunch buffet, and Zayn sat down next to a girl with blonde hair and a nice smile and gave her a kiss.

”Friends!” Louis said to get their attention. The people that sat around the table and chatted looked up at him. ”This is Harry Styles, soon-to-become stepson to our favourite man Sir Twist.” 

”Bless him.” The blonde boy, that Harry remembered as Niall, said. ”He gave me a chocolate bar once.”

The others around the table laughed. Louis turned to Harry.

”Harry you already know Liam and Niall.” He gestured to the blonde boy and the brown haired boy that sat next to each other at the end of the table. They waved at him and he smiled back at them. 

Louis brought his attention back to him. ”This is Eleanor, she’s mean to me so avoid her.”

The pretty girl with the long brown hair that Louis was talking about, stuck out her tung at Louis and then gave Harry a big warm smile. ”Hi Harry!” 

He smiled back. ”Hi.”

Then Louis gestured to the girl next to Zayn. ”And this is Zayn’s girlfriend Perrie."

The blonde haired girl waved. ”Nice to meet you Harry.” She said.

”It’s nice to meet you too, all of you.” He said.

”So what’s on the menu Niall?” Louis asked.

Niall looked up from his plate full of food. ”Do you mean right now or for the party?” 

Harry didn’t quite understand what they talked about but he didn’t say anything.

”Well both if you have checked with the kitchen staff?”

Niall shook his head ”No. I was planning to do that after lunch.” 

”Great! Whats for lunch then?” Louis asked the people around the table.

”Everything.” Liam said and Niall nodded in agreement. 

When Harry, Louis and Zayn had filled their plates with food (Liam was right, they served everything!), they sat down at the table. Zayn sat down next to his girlfreind, Louis next to Eleanor and Harry next to Louis. 

Harry didn’t talk so much while they ate, he mostly listened to Louis’ and his friends conversations. They talked and laughed and teased each other and Harry thought it was really strange to sit here, next to the prince of england and his friends and eat lunch. Like, some weeks ago he was just really excited when he found a magazine with Louis on the cover. And now he ate lunch with him. It was definitely strange. 

He sneaked some glances at Louis every now and then, just looking at his profile while he talked to Liam. Louis was just stunning. And he had been so nice to Harry. 

Harry looked down at his hands lying on the table. He had really come to like Louis. But Harry knew that Louis didn’t like him, at least not in the way Harry liked Louis. He was the prince of england, he could not be gay. He would probably marry Eleanor or some other pretty girl in a couple of years. 

Harry sighed. Well at least it seemed like he and Louis were friends kind of. He decided that he should be happy with that, instead of wanting more than he could get. 

A hand that waved in front of his face woke him up from his thoughts.

”What?” He said and looked at the faces that were watching him.

”I said..” Louis began. ”..that we are gonna head to the stable after lunch and look around a bit. Maybe go for a ride on the horses. I wondered if you want to come?” 

”Yeah, we were there before when you guys played tennis. It’s really nice and it’s empty of old boring people.” Zayn said with a friendly smile.

Harry nodded. ”Yeah sure.” 

Honestly, Harry didn’t even know that they had horses here but that didn’t matter. He was going to the stable with Louis. And maybe see him ride a horse. Harry had to hide the giant smile that played on his lips. 

\-----------

Okay maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to accompany Louis to the stable. Because now they wanted him to ride. On a horse (Sadly.) And Harry was terrified. 

”You will be fine!” Eleanor said and handed him a helmet. ”The horses are nice and the staff will help you if you get any problems.”

Harry didn’t trust her. Sure the horses looked nice, but what if Harry’s horse decided that it didn’t like him? And threw him off? Harry shook his head slightly. 

”You alright there Harry?” Louis asked. He walked out of one of the boxes with a helmet under his arm.

Harry considered lying and say that he was fine, so he wouldn’t seem like such a wimp.(Twenty years old and afraid of horses does usually not tend to impress people.) But he realised that Louis would know that he lied as soon as Harry climbed up on the horse.

”Well no. I’m kind of terrified. I have never sat on a horse before.” 

Louis eyes filled with compassion. ”I see...”

He looked thoughtful at Harry and he could literally see a idea forming in the prince’s head.

”But what if you ride with me then?”

Louis’ choice of words made Harry head spin with dirty images. ”How do you mean?”

Louis smiled big at him. ”You can sit behind me on my horse! Will that be okay?” 

Harry did not even have to think about it. ”Yeah that would be much better...” He stopped himself and hesitated. ”...but can you ride?”

Louis laughed. ”Now I feel insulted Harry, I’ve been riding since I was four years old.”

That made Harry a little calmer. 

Louis swung himself up on a beautiful maroon-coloured horse just as Niall and Liam walked in to the stable, they had been down in the kitchen and talked to the staff about something.

”Looking good Lou!” Niall shouted.

Louis made a salut to him and grinned. Louis looked so good upon that horse that Harry felt dizzy. 

Louis told the staff to help Harry up, and and before he could protest he sat there, behind Louis on the grand horse.

”Are you okay?”

Harry started to nod before he remembered that Louis probably couldn’t see him. ”Yea.” 

Eleanor red up next to them on a white horse. She winked at Harry before she continued out from the stable.

”Are you ready?” Louis asked and turned around to look at Harry. He had a big smile on his lips.

”I think so.” 

”Great, hold on tight!”

Hold on tight? Where?! He just stared stupidly at the back of Louis head without doing anything. 

One of Louis small hands sneaked behind his back and took a steady grip on Harry’s left hand and steered it around his thin waist. Harry let out a shaky breath as he laid his other arm around Louis.

”And off we go!” 

They rode out from the stable and away to the others who were gathered outside. They all had an own horse except Perrie that sat behind Zayn just like Harry sat behind Louis. A member from the staff sat on a horse too. She greeted them and made it clear that she would lead the way. 

It was really a beautiful day, and sitting behind Louis on a horse was probably the best way Harry could think of spending it. He took a deep breath and smelled the fresh air, the horse, and Louis. Louis definitely smelled the best. 

”This must be really weird for you Harry.” Louis suddenly said.

”What?” Harry didn’t comprehend.

”You know, being thrown in to this weird upperclass world. With all this traditions and stuff. Not even I understand it sometimes. It must be kind of hard?” 

”Oh.”

Harry had honestly not even thought about that since he met Louis this morning. The prince had made him forget everything about being anxious about not fitting in.

”Well it was weird in the beginning, like yesterday. And I still don’t understand everything. But it’s much easier than I thought it would be. I seriously thought that they would kick me out directly because I didn’t fit in. And they haven’t done that yet so i’m happy.”

Louis laughed. ”I would never let them kick you out.”

Harry didn’t know if Louis noticed that he hugged his waist a little bit tighter at that.

After half an hour of riding through the woods they were back on solid ground outside the castle.

”That wasn't too bad huh?” Eleanor had thrown an arm over his shoulders and were now walking next to him. Zayn, Perrie and Louis were walking behind them and Niall and Liam in front of them.

”No, Louis is a really good rider.” He facepalmed at his own words. Eleanor just laughed. 

They walked back in to the castle and Harry realised that he hadn’t spoken to his mother and Robin since breakfast.

”I think I need to go and see my mom and Robin, they’re probably wondering where I am.”

Eleanor nodded. ”Okay, see you at dinner maybe then.” She walked off in the direction of her room. 

Harry turned around to say goodbye to the others but found that Louis was the only one there.

”The others went to their rooms but I need to see my parents before I can head back to my room.” Louis explained.

”Oh same here.”  


”Well then we can go together!” Louis said and smiled. 

”Will we have the same places as we had at yesterdays dinner or can we sit wherever we want?” Harry asked Louis as they walked down the corridor.

”The same places as yesterday, unfortunately.” Louis said with a sigh.

Harry thought about yesterday and laughed.

”What?” Louis looked uncomprehending at him.

Harry cleared his throat. ”At yesterdays dinner I probably was more confused than I have ever been in my entire life.”

Louis laughed him too. Harry started to described his many states of confusion yesterday and it ended with them nearly lying down on the floor laughing.

”Your poor thing!” Louis said when he had calmed himself down a bit. 

They reached Harry’s ‘parents’ door.

”Well heres my final destination.” Harry said and looked at Louis.

”Yeah..” They became quiet for a while. ”..I guess I see you at dinner then? And if not we’ll catch up tomorrow?”

Louis wanted to hang out more with Harry? Harry smiled so large that his dimples appeared. ”Sounds great!”

Louis gave him a wave before he was off to his parents room.

Three hours later when Harry sat next to his mum and Robin and ate dinner (Grilled salmon with butter fried aspargues, it was delicious!) he caught Louis’s gaze. They smiled to each other and then both started to giggle and had to turn away. 

The memory of the ride swirled around in Harry’s thought’s even after he had gone to bed. And suddenly it was a lot harder to resist the thoughts of wanting more than he could get.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so late that it's embarrassing! And I can't blame it anything but school. It has been so stressful and I have had like three breakdowns in the course of two weeks. At least this chapter is longer than the others and it's starting to happen a lot of things. Me myself are very satisfied with it and I hope you will like it too. Other than that I would like mention that I do not own any of the characters or the song mentioned in this chapter and I hope there's not too much grammatical errors disturbing your reading experience (once again i'm swedish..)
> 
> I love when you leave comments and I really hope that you will like this chapter as much as I do. 
> 
> Lots of love and happy reading!

Louis pov:

Louis woke up to another sunny day. He laid still for a while in the bed and listened to the birds that sang outside his window. And thought of Harry. It seemed like he was the only thing on Louis mind lately. 

Yesterday, before dinner, Louis had had a very much needed wank in the shower. He came visualising a sweaty shirtless Harry sucking him off. 

He felt a little ashamed afterwards. He had only known Harry for one day and here he was furiously wanking to dirty images of him in his head. It was probably quite disrespectful. Later though, when his and Harry’s eyes met during dinner and they both started giggling and had to look away, he felt that it was totally worth it. 

Louis got up from bed and put on some clothes: jeans and a black t-shirt with a white print on. He went to the bathroom and fixed his hair, and it wasn’t until he was done that he realised that he had a big smile on his lips. He shook his head, slightly amused by his own, smiling, reflection.

He went out from the bathroom and dug up some perfume from one of his bags. He had three perfumes with him and the one he sprayed on right know was his favourite. He put on his shoes and sauntered down to the dining hall. 

To his surprise all the others were already there, including Harry. He sat next to Niall and it seemed like the two of them was having a really fun conversation because they both was laughing pretty hard. 

He observed them in the corner of his eye while he poured some cereal and yoghurt in a bowl at the breakfast buffet. He didn’t really know if he should be jealous of Niall and see him as a threat, or if he should just go with that they got along well and that they were friends. He thought that was Niall straight, at least he hadn’t said anything else. And Harry’s sexuality was still a mystery. Harry could be straight for all he knew. But he hoped that that wasn’t the case. 

He walked over to the table and Harry looked up and beamed at him. ”Good morning Louis!” He said with a dimpled smile.

”Good morning to you too curly.” Louis said and winked. Harry’s cheeks turned beautifully pink, and Louis was satisfied with that he was the reason.

Eleanor poked his tummy; ”Sit down now sleepyhead, we need to discuss the party.” 

Louis sat down in the empty chair next to Harry and looked at his friends. ”Well, start the discussion.” He said expectantly. 

”Firstly.” Zayn said. ”We looked around yesterday, and I know this place looks huge, but we didn’t find a single place to host the party!”  


”So we will occupy your room.” Eleanor added.

Louis nodded. ”That’s sounds okay.”

He kind of knew already that they would use his room. It’s not often that they find a good place where they wont get caught. 

”Secondly.” Niall took a pause in stuffing his face with food to talk. ”I talked to the kitchen staff yesterday and they would be delighted to prepare and give us some food to our ‘movie night’.” He made quotation marks with his fingers and they all laughed. 

Since the beginning of this tradition they had always used ‘movie nights’ as their excuse to get food and to avoid questions about what they were really doing. It was incredible that people still believed them. Like their parents. They thought they had movie nights as an tradition. Just the thought of that was hilarious. 

Harry did of course not laugh, because he didn’t understand the inside joke. Louis felt a little bad for him. He probably had no idea what they talked about. 

”And third.” Eleanor said when everybody had stopped laughing. ”I invited Harry to the party.”

Okay he was wrong, Harry DID know what they talked about. Not that he was disappointed. He would get drunk with Harry. The possibilities were infinite!

”Great!” He said and smiled big so Harry would see that he was happy. 

”Are we done discussing they party then?” Perrie asked. ”Because I would like to know what todays activity is.”  


”Yeah and if it is worth skipping or not.” Zayn added with a wink to his girlfriend. 

”There is no activity today, except that instead of lunch we will have a picnic.” Liam informed. ”And yesterday we missed tea because we were riding, and I would like to not miss it today too.”

Louis looked at Liam over the table and said in a dramatic voice; ”We would never let you miss an important event as afternoon tea! That would be a disaster!”

Liam gave him an despised look and turned to talk to Niall who sat opposite him. Harry laughed a little and gave Louis a dimpled grin. 

”So you will accompany us on our little party?” Louis asked Harry in a (hopefully) casual voice (Harry’s dimples made him dizzy.)

”It looks like I will.” Harry said and bit his lip. He looked kind of nervous.

”It will be fine.” Louis said with a soft tone and gave Harry’s arm a squeeze. ”We have mr safety himself with us.” He pointed at Liam and Harry laughed again. It sounded like music in Louis ears. Then an idea struck him.

”Harry, yesterday you came with me riding. So I don’t think that it’s more than fair that you show me something you like to do today!”

Harry gave him an questioning look. ”Like what?” 

Louis shrugged but smiled and said; ”Anything! Please Harry it will be fun!”

Harry looked like he didn’t believe him but eventually sighed in defeat. ”Well okay, but let me think about what we should do for a moment, okay?” 

The others had began to pay attention to their conversation and looked at them with curious eyes.

”Do what?” Zayn asked and looked between Louis and Harry.

”Harry and I shall head out on an great adventure!” Louis said with big gestures.

Harry just shook his head with a small smile playing on his lips. ”It will probably not be as exciting as that sounds but I will try my best.” He said shyly. 

Zayn rolled his eyes. ”It’s good Harry that you’re fooling away Louis so we don’t need to spend time with him.”

Louis stretched over the table and ruffled Zayn’s well styled quiff. The glare that Zayn sent to him was mortifying. 

”Are you done with breakfast Harry?” Louis asked while he slowly raised from his chair. Zayn started to lift himself of his chair too with a muffled growl building up in his throat.

”Yeah I guess?” 

Louis grabbed Harry’s hand and pulled him up from his chair.

”Good because we need to run from my soon to become murderer.” And with that last sentence they ran away, laughing, from Zayn and out from the dining hall. It wasn’t until they were safely locked up in Harry’s room that Louis noted that they still held hands. 

\-----------

Harry’s pov: 

Louis let go of his hand and leaned back against the door in an attempt to catch his breath. Harry missed the warmth of Louis hand in his immediately but he did of course not say anything about that. Instead he copied Louis and leaned back against the door, and for a couple of minutes the only thing that was heard was their fast puffy breaths.

After a while, Louis stood up properly and seemed to be scanning Harry’s room. ”Well this is cosy.”

Harry watched as Louis walked further into the room and then stopped at the bed and sat down.

”It’s much smaller than mine, but I like it! I don’t like the large floor areas that I always seem to get in my rooms. It seems like they think that I will do some extremely complicated yoga exercises and need much room for that.” Louis smiled at him from the bed. 

Harry took some uncertain steps closer to Louis. ”I do. Yoga I mean.”

Louis eyes widened at his confession. ”Really? You have to teach me!”

Harry laughed at that. ”I maybe will someday.”

Louis pouted. ”Well if you don’t want to see me murdered we will have to stay in here for a while. You can teach me now!” 

Harry was still amazed that Louis wanted to spend time with him, and now Louis wanted him to teach him yoga. It was not that Harry didn’t want to. But to see Louis do different yoga positions, bend his body in all different directions...well let’s say that he wasn’t sure if he could contain himself. He felt the blush that was slowly creeping up on his face. He needed to distract Louis! An idea popped up in his head.

”I may not teach you yoga right now, but you wanted me to show you something I like to do, right?”

Louis nodded. Harry walked towards the bed and bowed down and picked up the guitar case next to the bed. Louis watched as he sat down next to him and opened the guitar case and took out his acoustic guitar. 

”You play guitar?” Louis sounded impressed, much to Harry’s delight.

”Yeah, I’ve played since I was a kid.” He strummed lightly on the guitar.

”Well, play something for me!” Louis sat with crossed legs on the bed and looked excitedly an him.

Suddenly Harry felt nervous, he liked singing and he knew he was good at it. But to sing and play for the prince of england, who he might have crush on? He swallowed. The thought made him all jittery.

”Ehm, okay.”

He wiped his sweaty hands on his jeans and took some deep breaths. And then started to play Ed Sheeran’s ‘Wake Me Up’.

”I should ink my skin, with your name. Take my passport out again, and just replace it. See I could do without a tan on my left hand, where my fourth finger meets my knuckle. And I should run you a hot bath and fill it up with bubbles.”

Louis looked at him the whole time and Harry didn’t know if Louis noticed that instead of singing ‘And your eyes turn from green to grey in the winter’ he changed the lyrics to ’blue to grey’. When he started singing the third verse Louis joined in. 

”And would you ever feel guilty? If you did the same to me. Would you make me a cup of tea, to open my eyes in the right way?”

Louis voice was like magic. It was high and clear and perfect. And their voices harmonised so well! Harry had to really concentrate to not forget singing himself and just listen to Louis. 

”Cause i’m just in love when you wake me up. Well maybe i’m just in love when you wake me up. I said maybe I fell in love, when you woke me up.”

Harry played the last chord and they fell silent and just stared into each others eyes. Louis eyes were blue, so blue! Maybe it sounded cliche but you could really drown in Louis eyes. It made him dizzy. Harry didn’t know who made the first move and when it happened but suddenly they were much closer than before. Like so close that Harry could kiss Louis. He was definitely dizzy now. 

The moment was ruined by someone who knocked on the door. It seemed like someone would always intrude when he was with Louis. He sighed and got up and opened. 

Niall stood outside with Liam, who held back a furious Zayn. Eleanor and Perrie stood next to them and watched Zayn’s futile struggle to get into the room.

”I promise I wont kill him! I will just give him a punch in the face or two!”

Louis must have left his seat on the bed because now he slid up behind Harry and smiled at the little entourage outside the door. 

”What gives us the pleasure of have you lovely folks here?” He asked and ignored Zayn’s grabby hands that tried to reach for him.

”Well it’s time to leave for the picnic.” Niall said and smiled excitedly.

”Already?” Louis said with raised eyebrows.

”Yeah, the field is an half hour walk away so we need to leave now.” Liam said with an amazingly calm voice, he didn’t seem bothered at all by Zayn’s attempt’s to beat Louis up. 

”Oh alright. We’re coming.” Louis looked thoughtful at Zayn and then said. ”What do you say about a hug and forgive and forget?” He gave Zayn a wink and opened his arms.

Zayn gave Louis a sulky glare but did at least stop trying to punch him. Louis looked expectantly at him and finally Zayn sighed and said; ”Okay but if you destroy my hair again I will kill you.”

They hugged each other and Harry felt a sting of jealousy when he saw the fond way Louis embraced Zayn. 

”Great! Now when everybody is friends again we can leave.” Liam made a gesture down the hallway. They left as soon as Harry had locked the door and they walked out in the sunny weather.

\-----------

Louis pov:

When they arrived to the field where the picnic were to be held, Louis feet hurt. It had taken them fifty minutes to walk instead of thirty because they were so many people. All the guest were to go together and they were about one hundred and fifty people and many of them were quite old. 

Louis had walked with his parents for the sake of appearances, he hadn’t spent so much time with them and they didn’t want people to gossip about bad family relationships or get other stupid ideas. 

Although he loved his parents, the conversations wasn’t the most fun he had had in his life, perhaps. And when they started asking about his new friendship with Harry he started to stutter and nearly tripped over his own feet. 

It was a blessing when they arrived to the beautiful field. But the torture was apparently not completely over because Eleanor’s parents walked up to them, with Eleanor in tow. 

”Eleanor how wonderful to see you! I have not had the opportunity to greet you yet! But I have seen that you and Louis have spent much time together.” His mother hugged Eleanor tightly.

Eleanor laughed a little and looked awkwardly at Louis. He just gave her a faint smile.

”It’s nice to see you again Louis!” Eleanor’s father gave him a firm handshake.

”Nice to see you too sir Calder.” Louis said.

”It has been far too long Louis!” mrs Calder pulled him into a hug.

”Absolutely.” 

While their parents chattered on about who knows what he caught sight of Harry. He stood a short distance away with his mother and sir Twist. He had that look on his face that Louis knew so well from seeing it on other ‘newcomers’ faces. The look when they really try to look cheerful and pleasant, but in reality they are really bored. 

”Should we go and find the others Eleanor?” Louis asked in a high voice so their parents would hear. They would like that him and Eleanor left together.

Eleanor, that knew him too well, understood directly the act that he put up and played along. ”Oh yes Louis, that sounds like a wonderful idea!”

He took her hand and dragged her away from the boring adults. 

When they were far enough away he released her hand. Eleanor sighed and turned to look him in the eyes.

”You need to tell them Louis, you’re just hurting yourself by keeping it away from them.”

He looked down on the ground and blinked away the sudden wetness in his eyes. He knew that she was right, but that didn’t mean that it was easy. 

”And if you want something serious with Harry, you need to tell them too. Otherwise you will hurt both yourself AND Harry.”

He looked up at her with surprised eyes. She smiled softly at him. ”I’m not stupid Louis. And I think you should go for it! You two have an amazing chemistry together!”

He smiled a bit shyly and nodded.

Eleanor laughed. ”Give me a hug now you sap!”

They hugged each other and in that moment Louis was so happy that Eleanor was his best friend. ”Come on let’s go find the others so you can have an romantic picnic with Harry!”

Louis just laughed at her but followed her as she walked towards Liam and Niall who stood a bit further away. 

They had soon gathered up the whole gang again, and Zayn snatched a classic red white checkered picnic blanket from the servants who passed them out and they sat down next to a large oak tree. 

Louis sat down next to Harry and yawned as he stretched out his body on the big picnic blanket.

”Tired?” Harry asked with a smirk.

”Yes, the heat is making me weak.” Louis joked.

”It IS really hot though.” Niall said and waved his hands in front of his face in an attempt to cool himself. 

”Yeah, don’t you guys ever get annoyed with that you can’t just throw off your clothes and relax in the sun? Work on your tan? That kind off stuff?” Harry asked and looked at them with a frown.

”Of course we do.” Zayn said.

”Yea like all the time.” Niall added.

”But we can do that when we’re at home, in private. And events like this just happens a few times a year so it’s not so hard to put up with it.” Liam said matter of factly.

Louis brain had stopped at ‘throw your clothes off’.

A servant came with three big picnic baskets filled with food and Niall started digging in them to examine the content.

”Chicken, strawberries, grapes, apples, sandwiches, watermelon, cookies, lemonade..”

Louis snatched two grapes from the closest basket and threw one to Harry who caught it with his mouth. 

After that a very thrilling game began: Louis threw fruit to Harry and Harry threw fruit to Louis and the goal was to catch it with your mouth. The others watched with amused smiles and cheered when someone managed to catch a piece of fruit. 

When Louis happened to throw a strawberry to high and a little bit to far, Harry had to lean back to catch it, the problem was that the lost his balance and made a funny little dance before he fell on his back. Louis laid down and laughed until he cried. Harry sat up again and stuck his tongue at him. 

An hour and a half later they were back in the castle. And Louis feet hurt like hell once again.

”Carry me Harry.” He said with an exhausted smile.

To his surprise, Harry picked him up easily and started to walk against Louis room.

”Yeez I was just kidding! But don’t you dare put me down!”

Harry just laughed and continued to carry him. The others had stuff to do now when they came back so Louis and Harry were on their own.

When they arrived at Louis room, Harry put him down and let him open the door. They walked in to the room and sat down in the sofa. 

They were silent for a while, but not that awkward kind of silent. It was a comfortable silent. But after a while Harry broke the silence;

”Louis, whats it like being a prince? For real?” 

Louis looked curiously at him. ”What do you mean?”  


”You know, is it like it’s pictured in the magazines or at TV? All posh and classy? Is prince charming even the real you?” 

Louis sighed and looked at Harry with weak eyes.

”Firstly, you need to know that I am the real me right now. When i’m with you. Okay?”

Harry nodded and had a look of satisfaction written in his face. Louis took a deep breath and started talking:  


”It’s not easy being a public person. Perhaps it’s even more difficult to belong to the royal family. In this upperclass world we have a lot of rules, some good and some completely idiotic. Like on great dinner and galas, we often enter the room first or last. So that all eyes will be on us. And we always need to look proper and happy and nice because if we don’t people will start to speculate and rumours will grow. People does always expect something from us you know? A good speech, a wave from a balcony, a nice interview about how wonderful everything is. And people always think we live this dashing life. In reality when we’re at home alone, just me, my sisters and my parents, we’re walking around in sweatpants and eating in front of the television as we watch ’The X Factor’ or ’Britain's Got Talent’. And then i’m just like I am now, relaxed and myself. I don’t have to pretend or fake any smiles.” 

Harry sat and just listened to his little rant. He didn’t even try to interrupt or ask any questions, and Louis felt such trust at the boy he had just met two days ago. He felt a overwhelming need to tell Harry the truth about everything. But he could not tell Harry everything in one day, but he could do it a little bit at a time.

”Do you know what the worst part is?” He asked while looking down at his fiddling hands.

”No?”

Louis took a deep breath, he could do this. ”That my parents doesn’t even know that i’m gay.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soon schools over and it's summer! I can't wait! (And I can't wait to go the two One Direction concerts in Stockholm either!) 
> 
> As usual, i'm happy if you leave comments and give me feedback! 
> 
> Happy reading!

Louis’ pov:

Louis could feel Harry flinch next to him. He kept his eyes at his hands, afraid to meet Harry’s eyes. What if he was disgusted? What if he didn’t want to spend time with him anymore? He felt the tears starting to build up in his eyes. 

Harry turned around in his seat and suddenly Louis felt a finger under his chin. Harry lifted his chin up and Louis looked right into Harry’s wonderful green eyes.

”Louis, it’s okay. It will be okay.” Harry stroked away the stupid tears that had escaped from his eyes. The nice gesture made Louis cry for real and Harry laid his arms around him and murmured nothings into his hair as Louis cried against his shoulder. 

After a while Louis stopped crying, instead he just rested his head against Harry’s shoulder and breathed in Harry’s smell. He smelled very good. Like cinnamon, green apples and sunshine. 

”I’m sorry for that.” Louis said into Harry’s neck. ”It’s just that...i’m not sure about what they will say you know? When I tell them.” He dried his tears and looked up at Harry. 

Harry smiled compassionate. ”Well, I don’t know how your parents will react, but when I came out my mom was really happy for me. Like, as long as I do what makes me happy, she’s happy for me.” 

‘When I came out.’ The words echoed in Louis’ head. Harry was gay. Or bi. He wasn’t straight. What a time to be alive!

He looked at Harry and smiled. Harry smiled back and for a while they just sat there, smiling at each other. 

It felt so unreal that he met Harry only two days ago. It felt like he had known him for ever. And still in such short time, Harry had left a great mark in Louis’ brain (and heart). He knew that he wouldn’t forget Harry in the first place. 

”So you will tell them then?” Harry asked. 

Louis nodded. ”Yes, it’s probably for the best. But i’m still scared for what they will say.” He bit his lip anxiously. 

Harry laid one of his big hands on Louis’ thigh (Louis’ heart started to beat faster at that, and he really had to concentrate to breath normal.). ”It’s okay to be scared. And it’s okay to feel. Never forget that.” 

Louis nodded again. ”Thanks Harry. I really mean it.” And he really did. Harry had been so nice to him and whatever feelings Louis had for him was right now overshadowed by the enormous thankfulness that Louis felt against the curly haired boy. 

”There’s no need to thank me. I don’t like seeing people upset, so I always try to help them.” 

”Well you’re doing a really good job at helping, then.” 

Harry laughed a little. ”Good to hear.” He stood up and stretched out his body and yawned. 

”Where are you going?” Louis asked with a frown. 

”It’s time for tea soon right?” Harry said and held out his hand to help Louis up. 

”You’re starting to get on top of this now.” Louis said with a wink and took his hand. 

”I try.” 

Harry’s dimples appeared as he smiled big. Louis couldn’t help but poke the left dimple which made the boy laugh. 

”What was that good for?”

Louis shrugged ”Good luck I guess. Come on now, let’s get us a nice cup of tea!” He bounced out the door with Harry not far behind.

\-----------

Harry’s pov:

At events like this, tea was (According to Louis) served in a saloon rather than in the dining hall. And in this case the saloon was located on the fourth floor. When Louis and him entered the saloon, that was already filled with people, he once again thought of how beautiful this place was. 

The walls were cream-coloured with a golden leafy print on that made them shine in the afternoon sun that shone in through the great windows. The floor were the same dark wooden floor as he had in his room and scattered around the room stood small round tables in the same wooden hue. Around the tables stood cream-coloured puffy armchairs and on the tables laid small cloths in the same cream-coloured shade. 

Some of Louis’ friends were already there. Zayn and Perrie for example sat with Zayn’s mom at one of the tables a little further away and chattered easy with some people Harry didn’t recognise. Eleanor sat at another table with her parents and seemed to have a deep conversation with her father. 

Harry looked around the room, there was no trace of neither Liam and Niall or of his mum and Robin. He started to panic a bit because what should he do now? It would look stupid if he sat down alone at one of the tables. He bit his lip worriedly.

Louis seemed to notice his suddenly change in mood because he laid one of his small hands on his shoulder and looked at him with a soft smile. Then he took his hand from Harry’s shoulder and grabbed his ankle instead and started to walk against his own parents.

”Louis! What are you doing?” Harry whispered.

”You are gonna sit with us Harry.” Louis answered calmly. 

He didn’t let go of his wrist until they stood in front of Louis’ parents. 

”Mum, dad.” He greeted them and sat down easily.

”Oh hello darling.” Louis’ mum said gently and smiled at her son. Louis’ father (the king of great fucking britain!) were about to say something to Louis but then he noticed Harry standing there, looking shyly at them. 

”Harold! What a nice surprise!” He said chuckling and stood up to shake Harry’s hand.

”Good afternoon sir.” Harry said and hoped he didn’t sound as nervous as he felt. 

”I thought that Harry here could sit with us today.” Louis said and made a gesture against one of the empty chairs around the table.

”Yes of course! Sit down Harry dear!” The queen said heartily. 

Harry sat down in the chair next to Louis. This was so weird! Just a couple of minutes ago Louis had cried against his shoulder because of this two people that sat in front of him. 

He smiled to himself though as he remembered Louis confession. Louis wasn’t straight. He was into boys. Just like Harry. Maybe he was into boys who were just like Harry. Maybe into Harry himself! 

”So boys, what have you done today?” Louis’ father asked them.

”Not much. We hid from Zayn because I happened to touch his hair.”

The king and queen laughed at that and Harry realised that Louis’ parents probably knew everything about Louis’ friends. They had probably known each other almost their entire lives. 

”And then it was the picnic where we almost burned up because of the heat, and then we came back home. Oh and Harry showed me that he could play guitar while we hid from Zayn!” 

Louis left out the part where he told Harry about the real life of a member of the royal family and the part where he cried because his parents didn’t now about his true sexuality. 

”Sounds like you have had a calm nice day then.” Louis’ mother said and smiled at them.

”Well look at that, you’re parents are here now Harold.” King Mark said. He beckoned to a servant and told her to tell Robin that they would be sitting here with them.

Soon enough Robin and Anne sat down at their table.

”Good afternoon!” Robin greeted them and then he turned to Harry; ”It’s good to see you Harry! Have you had a nice day?” 

Harry nodded timidly, he didn’t like to have all attention on him. And right now everybody around the table stared at him. ”Yes, I have. How has your day been?” 

”Great to hear! Our day has been splendid, right Anne?”

His mother nodded. ”Yes, but it has been a little hot for my taste.”

They all laughed. 

It didn’t really feel natural, what his mom had said wasn’t particularly funny but they still laughed as it was. Harry didn’t give that much thought though because Louis had started to fold the sleeves on his t-shirt and looked very cute while he did it.

A waitress set out cups, small spoons and small plates in front of each person around the table and then another waitress came out with a big platter with three storeys, filled with cookies and small scones. 

”So you play guitar Harry?” Queen Johanna asked while a third waitress filled their cups with hot tea. 

”Ehm yeah, I can play a bit yeah.” 

Louis leaned forward in his chair. ”Play a bit? A bit?! You can play very well from what I saw and heard when you showed me earlier today!” 

Harry felt himself blush. ”I only played one song.” He mumbled and looked down at his empty plate. 

”Yeah, but you played that song really well!” 

Harry smiled a little and looked up at Louis again. ”Thanks.” 

Louis father chuckled. ”It seem like you have made an impression on our Louis, and that’s not the easiest thing to do. I hope that we can hear you play sometime.” 

Harry felt dizzy with all the attention he was getting. But then he looked right in to Louis’ eyes and in no time at all he felt stable and secure again.

\-----------

About an hour later they left the beautiful saloon to get some rest before dinner. Louis waved goodbye to Harry before he wandered off with his parents, probably to their room to call Louis’ sisters who were in London. 

Harry accompanied Robin and his mom to their room, where he sat down in the sofa. He was completely exhausted. 

The afternoon tea with Louis and his parents had made him tired, he had been so focused on not saying the wrong thing and try to not embarrass himself. Honestly he had no idea how Louis managed to stay so alert all the time. 

His mother sat down next to him and stroked his back gently. ”You okay honey?” She sounded a little bit worried. 

”Yeah, a bit tired though.” 

Anne muffled a laugh. ”Well that is not so strange considering how you’re running around the whole castle with Louis.” 

He groaned and put his head in his hands. ”Is it that obvious?” 

”Well, for me it is. For him? I don’t think so.” She stroked his hair and smiled to him. ”You need some rest sweetheart, we’ll meet up before dinner okay?” 

He stood up and gave his mom a hug, then he shouted goodbye to Robin who was in the bathroom before he retreated to his own room. 

\-----------

Louis’ pov:

Louis sat at his usual place in the dining hall and small-talked with his aunt. Tonight she was very excited because tomorrow was her birthday. She babbled on and on about how great she had planned this and how nice it was to see all her friends and family gathered for her big day.

”You don’t turn fifty everyday.” She said and chuckled as she downed probably her third glass of wine. And Louis was sure that she turned sixty this year, not fifty. But still he laughed and took a sip of his own, first, glass of wine.

”You seem to get along well with that Harold boy.” Aunt Hilda said suddenly.

Louis was not prepared for that, he choked on his wine and started coughing like crazy. It reminded him much about the first evening here, except that this time he actually started coughing. 

”His name is Harry, and yeah he is a nice lad.” He said when he had stopped coughing and had calmed down a bit.

”Harold, Harry. You know who I mean. He seems a little strange to me.” 

His aunt had something disparaging in her eyes. If this hadn’t been her birthday celebration week he might had said some sassy comment or defended Harry, but it would just make things worse right now. 

He felt the tension build up in the air so he just gave his aunt a nod and quickly started talking to his father. He caught a look of Harry, who looked very happy and content with his food. He did also look very cute tonight with a nice white button-up that stretched perfectly over his broad shoulders. 

Louis decided that it didn’t matter if this was his aunts birthday week, if she said another bad word about Harry he would defend him with all his power.

After dinner, when Louis had dragged himself up to his room, he didn’t feel like sleeping. He was, actually, very much awake. He walked up to the window and looked out. 

It was quite late, the stars had begun to light up the dark sky. He thought about what he could do, instead of sleeping. He could always go to Eleanor’s room and they would gather the gang and they would stay up late and talk and eat the snacks that Niall always brought with him. But he didn’t feel like it. It felt like such a waste on a beautiful night like this. 

He didn’t know if it was all the wine that he had drunk just to avoid talking with his aunt, but a crazy idea struck him. He changed his clothes to something a little more casual, black jeans and a grey knitted sweater, and then he went out into the corridor. 

It was a little creepy walking there now when everybody else had gone to sleep. It was dark and the only sound he could hear was his own footsteps. He reached his destination and for a while he just stood there and tried to listen for any sounds coming from inside the room. When he didn’t hear anything he decided to knock on the door. The sound was very loud in the contrast to the silent corridor. 

He heard some shuffling steps inside the room and someone who fiddled with the lock. And then finally the door swung open. 

Harry looked stunning in his tight black jeans and naked chest. His tattoos were on full display, probably from showering before dinner, and his curly hair looked more unruly than ever. If Louis could describe Harry with one word right know, the word had to be sex.

The only thing that didn’t really fit in with that description right now was Harry’s face. He looked like a surprised puppy. 

”Louis? What are you doing here?” 

Harry didn’t seem to be uncomfortable with being shirtless in front of Louis because he didn't try to cover himself at all. And well, he had no reason to be uncomfortable. No one with that body would be. 

”I didn’t feel like sleeping.” Louis said with a shrug.

Harry chuckled. ”So you decided to come here?” 

”Actually...I was wondering if you would like to take some fresh air with me?” It sounded really stupid. But it would have sounded even more stupid if Louis had told him the truth that he wanted Harry to look at the stars with him. 

Harry looked hesitatingly at him for a while before he spoke; ”Is ‘fresh air’ a code for something else?”

Louis sighed and threw out his arms. ”Yes! It was a code for ’I wonder if you would like to look at the stars with me!” 

So, he had said it. He had probably made a fool of himself too. He looked up and saw that Harry was trying to hide a laugh. Louis would have been mad if it wasn’t for Harry’s eyes that sparkled with some kind of fondness that he couldn’t really put in words. 

”What are you laughing about?” He asked a bit lame. 

Harry continued laughing but after a little while he said. ”I thought you meant something very different.” 

Louis looked uncomprehending at him. ”Like what?” 

Harry made quotation marks with his fingers. ”‘Take some fresh air’? I thought you meant smoking or something.” He shot Louis a toothy smile. 

Now when Harry said it, it really sounded like it was that he meant. Louis started laughing too. ”Well that was not what I had in mind.” 

”Speaking of that...” A mischievous grin grew on Harry’s face. ”...you said something about stars?” 

That cheeky little bastard! Louis blushed but refused to look away. ”Yes, stars. Would you like to see them? With me?” 

Harry nodded. ”Yes, I would very much like to see them with you. I should just put on a shirt.” 

Harry walked in to his room while Louis waited outside, thinking that he was completely okay with Harry shirtless. More than okay! 

When Harry came back he had put on a dark-green knitted sweater that matched his eyes perfectly and Louis had to catch his breath real quick because; Wow. Harry looked good. 

Harry locked his door and they walked quietly beside each other through the corridor, down the stairs and out through the large front door. They walked around the castle, till they were just beside the tennis pitches where they played tennis only yesterday. 

Louis laid down in the grass and hummed happily. Harry laid down next to him and turned his head to look at him. ”Why didn’t you feel like sleeping?” 

”I...I don’t really know. I wasn’t tired I guess.” He looked up at the stars. They were really beautiful. It was summer so the nights weren’t very cold, but still the heat that streamed from Harry’s body was welcoming and nice. 

Louis were about to move his hand, maybe to fix his hair or to scratch his arm where he had gotten a mosquito bite, when it accidentally bumped into Harry’s hand. Both of them got tense for a second, but then they both together moved their hands at the same time and the warmth of Harry’s hand closed around his own. 

They looked at each other and both were blushing and they exchanged shy smiles. 

Then they stayed like that for an hour, neither of them saying anything. They didn’t need to. Their linked hands spoke enough right now. And neither of them were looking at the stars. They just had eyes for each other. 

Then it started getting cold, despite it being summer, and they had to walk back in to the castle. But they were still holding hands. When they reached Harry’s room, they just stood outside for a while. Louis had no idea what to say or do but then finally he settled for a kiss on the cheek and an awkward wave. Harry did the same awkward wave thing and then disappeared behind his door. 

When Louis walked back to his own room, he could might as well have walked on fluffy clouds. That’s how it felt. Like he was flying.

When he laid down in the bed he knew two things for sure. One: he really like Harry. Two: He couldn’t wait to friday and the party.

He fell asleep with a smile on his lips.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was at the two One Direction concerts in Stockholm this weekend and do I have to say it was the most awesome thing I have experienced in my whole life? Still can't believe that I actually were there on both!  
> But thanks to that, this chapter is a little bit delayed. But this is the longest chapter so far and i'm quite happy with it. 
> 
> Keep give me feedback please! 
> 
> Happy reading!

Harry’s pov:

For the first time this week, Harry woke up to his alarm ringing. He groaned but rolled over in the bed so he could pick up his phone and turn off the loud beeping sound.

According to Robin, today was the most important day of the whole week. It was thursday and today was Hilda Tomlinson’s birthday. 

He laid still for a minute or two, trying to wake up properly, before he stood up and went to the bathroom to pee and then take a shower. I was in the shower that he remembered what happened yesterday. 

He gasped and got like two liters of water in his mouth but he couldn’t care less. He and Louis had watched the stars! He and Louis had held hands while watching the stars! (Or not so much watching the stars because they had just looked at each other.) And Louis gave him a kiss on the cheek after they had watched the stars! 

He smiled so big that his cheeks hurt. 

He jumped out of the shower and sang happily to himself while he dried his body and his hair and covered himself up with the coverage batter. He put on some new clean black boxers and then he sat down on the bed and waited for Robin that would help Harry get prepared because today was so important. 

Harry didn’t even feel insulted that Robin thought that he couldn’t manage to get prepared properly on his own, because he probably couldn’t and he didn’t want to do anything wrong so it probably was for the best that Robin helped him. 

He heard five fast knocks on the door and got up and opened for Robin who looked mildly stressed. 

”Good morning Harry!” Robin said with a kind smile. ”Great that you have already showered. As you probably know, this day will start with a very formal champagne breakfast so you need to get dressed in nice proper clothes.” 

Harry actually had no idea that that was what the day would start with but nodded promptly and watched Robin search through his bag which he had been to lazy to unpack. After a while Robin stood up with a content smile on his lips. 

”This will be good.” He gave Harry his black suit trousers and a white button up with black leather on the collar that Robin had bought him right before this trip. Harry quickly put on the clothes and the black dress shoes that Robin had brought with him from his room. 

He soon stood in the bathroom and tried to do something about the unruly curls around his head. Robin leaned against the doorframe and watched him. 

”You want me to cut my hair, right?” Harry asked him. He felt a bit sad about it because the curls were kind of his trade mark. He wanted to keep his curls. 

He met Robin’s eyes in the mirror. They were wide and filled with surprise.

”Of course not Harry! I would never tell you to cut your curls!” Robin walked up to Harry and turned him around so they looked directly at each other.

”I would never want to change you Harry. I hope you know that? I gave you the coverage batter for your tattoos because I know how small minded the people at these events can be. And I didn’t want to expose you to that.” Robin put a hand on Harry’s shoulder. ”I don’t know if I have told you Harry how good you have handled this. I’m really proud of you.” 

Harry smiled at his stepfather, it was really good to hear those words. 

”Thanks Robin.” He said and they hugged. 

When they parted Robin ruffled his hair.

”Your curls look fine! Let us go and get your mom and then go to that damn fancy breakfast.”

Harry laughed hard at that. Then he quickly brushed his teeth and then followed Robin out of the door.

They went to Robin and his mom’s room. When Anne saw him she cooed and caught him in a tight hug. 

”You look so handsome!” She took two steps back to get a good look at him. 

Robin laid his arms around her. 

”You look stunning too.” He said and Harry nodded agreeing. 

”You look great mom.” 

Anne smiled at them. ”You are amazing, both of you.” Then she took some steps closer to the door. ”Well should we go down and get breakfast?”

\-----------

Louis’ pov:

Just like on the first evening at this place all the guest were gathered in the big room outside the dining hall to mingle, except this time it was morning. 

Louis stood once again in the middle of the room with his parents. He held a glass of champagne in his hand and he was looking for someone he knew that he could talk too (preferably Harry), because somehow his parents always found the most boring people in England to have a conversation with. 

He took a sip from his glass of champagne. This wasn’t something unusual for him. He had experienced many champagne breakfasts in his lifetime. 

When they were younger; him, Zayn and Niall had competed in who that could get most drunk without anyone noticing. He would never forget that time that Niall had looked up at him with red blazed cheeks and wide eyes and told him that he had puked in an old lady’s hat. Or that time Zayn had draped himself over the Prime Minister of Sweden and told him that he wanted to throw away his promising future and become a rapper instead. Or that time Louis himself nearly had held a speech for two-hundred people about how much he hated the pants he was wearing that day, and that he wanted pizza. 

Liam and Eleanor had always been there to save them though. Or well, Liam had always been there to save them. Eleanor had just laughed at them. 

He search for Liam in the crowd of people. He wanted to scare him and say that they were thinking of doing it again. Liam’s face when he heard that would be priceless.

While he looked for Liam he felt someone laying a hand on his shoulder. He wasn’t expecting that and a surprised squeak left his mouth. He whirled around to get a look at his attacker and found himself face to face with Zayn.

”You scared me!” He gave Zayn’s shoulder a light punch but Zayn just grinned at him. 

”Well I’m sorry. I didn’t know that you were such a wimp.” 

Louis smacked Zayn’s shoulder again, but this time harder. Zayn jumped back and held up his hands in defence. ”Okay, okay! I was just kidding! You’re very brave Louis, you happy now?”

Louis smiled, pleased at Zayn’s defeat. Zayn just shook his head and rolled his eyes at him. 

”You’re impossible Lou. However, I need to speak with you.” Zayn’s tone indicated that he wanted the to speak in private so Louis announced to his parents that he would disappear for a while. They just gave him a nod and continued to speak with an old couple.

Zayn and Louis marched through the crowd with nicely dressed people until they were so much alone that anyone can be in a room full of people. Louis turned to Zayn; ”So, what did you want to talk about?” 

Zayn leaned closer to him and said quietly; ”About my sound system that will be driven here today. Are you helping me putting it up later?” 

Louis nodded. ”Yes of course.” That was the least he owed Zayn for getting his absolutely insane sound system driven out here in secret by one of his servants.

”Great.” Zayn were about to say something else but it seemed like his eyes found something interesting going on behind Louis, his smile changed to a cryptic grin. ”Well, look at that.” He laughed and gave Louis a pat on his shoulder.

”What?” Louis said and tried to turn around and find out what was so funny but Zayn stopped him. 

”I just want you to know that I really like your choice of shirt today.” He laughed once again. 

Louis didn’t understand a thing. He looked down at his button up: It was one of his favourites. It was marine-blue and the top of the collar was in leather. He couldn’t see anything that could be the reason to Zayn’s laugh so he once again turned around, this time without getting stopped, and looked for what Zayn found so amusing.

He didn’t find anything. Or well, he found Harry standing with Perrie and Eleanor. But Harry didn’t look funny. He was just cute. Or handsome maybe were a better description on how Harry looked right now. His curls looked softer and shinier than ever, his long legs were covered by a pair of well fitting suit trousers and his button up was...his button up! Louis took a quick look at his own and at Harry’s shirt. Yep, they were definitely wearing the same button up! Except Harry’s was white.

Zayn laughed again. ”That was an interesting turn of events.” He started walking against Harry, Perrie and Eleanor. 

”Where are you going?” Louis said.

Zayn turned around and gave him a mischievous grin. ”To my girlfriend. And I want to see were this same-shirt-as-your-crush drama will end.” He winked and continued walking and Louis had no other choice than to follow him. 

’Same-shirt-as-your-crush drama.’ Louis snorted. This was no drama. Harry and him were just wearing the same button up. Still, he couldn’t get away from that it was kind of exciting that they were matching shirts with each other. Even if it wasn’t planned at all. And he was kind of nervous to meet Harry too after yesterdays...whatever that was. 

They got to the small group of people and Zayn laid his arms around Perrie from behind and mumbled something in her ear. Louis desperately wanted to do the same to Harry but that was probably not suitable right now. Instead, he squeezed in between Harry and Eleanor and threw an arm over each of their shoulders. ”Hello there people! I like your shirt Harry.”

Harry blushed just from that and looked down at his shirt and then up at Louis. ”Thanks I...” 

Harry had probably noticed the fact that they were wearing the same button up because he stopped talking in the middle of the sentence and started blushing even more furiously. Even Eleanor looked over at them to see what was happening and directly noticed that they were matching shirts. She threw her hand over her mouth, probably to stop herself from cooing but Louis caught the look in her eye that said that she thought it was totally adorable. 

Harry started stuttering and Louis turned his attention back to him. ”I..I..I’m soooo sorry Louis. Do you...do you want me to go and change my shirt because I can totally do that it wont be a problem I..” This time it was Louis that stopped Harry from speaking, by putting his hand over Harry’s mouth. 

”No Harry, I don’t want you to change from that button up. Actually I would like you to keep it on.” Well that wasn’t completely true. He would much rather want Harry shirtless. But THAT was definitely not suitable right now. 

Harry were still blushing and were looking down at his own feet, but Louis could still see the small smile playing on curly haired boys lips. 

Harry looked up startled when a fanfare resounded through the great room. That meant that the protagonist of this week had arrived and that it soon was time for them entrance the dining hall.

Louis quickly said goodbye to his friends and stroked Harry lightly over the back before he left to find his parents. 

This time him and his parents were the last ones to walk in to the dining hall, which today was even more decorated than on the other days, so everyone could see them. Then his aunt entered the room to the sound of trumpets (His aunt and her god damn trumpets!) with a content smile. A servant pulled out her chair and she sat down. 

Several waitresses came out from the door that led to the kitchen and they each carried a plate which they put down on the tables in front of the guests. On the plates there was small canapés made of french toast, smoked salmon, cream and roe. There was also a small glass with fruit salad, grapes, tiny croissants and strawberries dipped in dark chocolate. And it was of coursed served with a glass of champagne. 

When people started talking and eating, Louis leaned over the table a little to congratulate his aunt on her birthday. ”Congratulations aunt Hilda.” He said with his prince charming smile. Aunt Hilda thanked him and then started babbling on and on about that people couldn’t believe that she was fifty years old already and that she didn’t look a year over forty. 

Louis though to himself that she looked older than the SIXTY years she was turning thanks to all plastic surgeries and botox. 

While they ate the delicious breakfast Louis tried to sneak glances at Harry but it was almost impossible thanks to aunt Hilda who where very much in the way in his view of Harry. So instead he tried to concentrate on his food as much as possible as to avoid to talk with his aunt. 

Finally when the breakfast almost were over it was announced that they would have a little break now and that they would meet in they castles basement at 11.00 for some chocolate and wine tasting. Louis swiftly said goodbye to his aunt and parents and walked off to find Harry and his friends. 

It wasn’t so hard to find Harry, he stood alone at the entrance to the dining hall. When he saw that Louis was on his way to him he smiled big and his beautiful dimples appeared. 

”You look happy.” Louis commented with a smile when he reached Harry. 

”So do you.” Harry said with a cheeky lift of one his eyebrows. 

Louis laughed. ”Touché.” He leaned against the doorframe. ”So, what you gonna do on this little break we have?” 

Harry shrugged. ”Don’t know. Have any ideas?” He sounded so confident. It was weird that just one hour ago he had stuttered and blushed just because they were wearing the same button up. 

”What do you say about go finding the others and just chill for a bit?” 

Harry nodded and they went off to find the others. 

While they climbed up the stair to the second floor, Harry asked a question; ”Is it always this much alcohol involved at these thingies?” 

Louis barked out a laugh. ”Yes. I don’t know what it is with rich people and alcohol.” He shook his head and thought about the crazy amount of alcohol that was served at some of the events he had been to. There was this one time when not a single person at the whole event was sober. Even Liam had had a hard time walking straight. 

”Well i’m not complaining. I just hope that I wont get drunk because that would be very much embarrassing.” 

That reminded Louis once again about the game that him, Niall and Zayn used to play. He told Harry about this and when he told him about the time he almost held a speech about pizza they had to stop walking for a while because Harry was laughing so hard. 

”I have Liam to thank that I still retain my heritage.” Louis said. 

”It’s good to hear that you finally have figured that out.” Louis hadn’t even noticed that Liam, Niall and Zayn stood a little further away in the corridor. He had been far too busy memorising how amazing Harry looked when he laughed. 

”Hey guys. What’s up?” He said and him and Harry walked up to the other boys. 

”We were looking for you actually.” Zayn said. 

Niall eyed them and a big smile emerged on his face. ”Did you guys know that you’re wearing the same shirt?” He said excitedly. 

Harry didn’t blush this time, he just smiled contently.

”Yes Niall it has come to our attention.” Louis said sarcastically. 

”It looks really cool! Like you were a cou..” Liam threw his arm around Niall’s shoulders and covered his mouth. And lucky was that because both Harry and Louis now sported a fierce blush on their necks and faces. Both knew what Niall were to say: Couple. 

It was probably true though. It probably looked like they were a couple! It seemed like the butterflies in Louis stomach was having a wild rave party. 

”Well.” Liam said and broke the awkward silence. ”We were looking for you. Niall brought his Xbox. You want play Fifa with us?” 

Louis looked at Harry who nodded gently. ”Yeah, sounds good.” 

Half an hour later, the awkward mood was long forgotten. Instead there was a fight to the death between the dream team (aka Louis and Harry) and the other team (aka Liam and Zayn). Niall sat in the middle between the two teams to prevent fights and to have the role as the commentator. 

”And here comes Styles who dribbles past Payne and he passes the ball to Tomlinson. Tomlinson ares for the goal, will he shoot? He shoots! Score! Louis Tommo Tomlinson scores!” 

Louis threw his hands up in a victory gesture. Zayn groaned. ”You’re cheating in some way.” He muttered. Louis ignored him and gave Harry an highfive. 

After ten more minutes the dream team had won the game. Louis jumped up and threw his fist in the air and hugged Harry who danced around on the spot. 

”Whatever. It’s just a game.” Zayn said and crossed his arms. 

”Little Zaynie didn’t like to lose.” Louis cooed and leaned over and pinched Zayns cheek. 

”That’s it!” 

A wild tickle fight begun and everyone joined in except Liam who stood in the middle and tried to tell them to calm down and to be careful with their nice clothes. Louis attacked Harry on the sofa and tickled him in the sides. 

”Lou! We’re in the same team!” Harry half laughed half screamed. 

”There are no teams in tickle fights!” Louis said with a wink and continued to tickle him. 

They heard Niall shout somewhere behind them. ”Everyone on Liam!” 

They all got up and jumped on Liam who fell down on Niall’s bed. ”Why me!” Liam screamed and tried to escape but was held down by Niall and Zayn while Harry and Louis tickled him all over. 

After a couple of minutes there was a knock on the door, and that was the end signal for the tickle fight. Niall got up to open the door and Liam tried to straight out his light-blue button up. 

”You’re crazy. Every single one of you.” Zayn said like he hadn’t been enjoying the tickle fight just a couple of seconds ago. 

”And so are you.” Louis said and then moved over to Harry who sat with crossed legs in the middle of Niall’s bed. Louis laid down so his head was in between Harry’s legs and looked up at him. ”Hi.” 

”Hi there yourself.” Harry looked down at him with an amused smile and then started to lightly brush through Louis’ hair. Louis closed his eyes and just let the feeling of Harry’s giant but gently hands pet his hair wash over him. It was wonderful. 

”Aren’t you two the cutest.” Louis opened his eyes again and looked up to see Eleanor standing a next to the bed with a knowing smile. 

”No. We are rough and very manly.” Louis said in a sleepy tone and closed his eyes again. 

”Very manly men, yes we are.” Harry filled in and laughed a little as he kept dragging his fingers through Louis hair. 

”Very manly men who had a tickle fight with Liam and Niall just a couple of minutes ago.” Zayn said from a little further away. 

Louis opened his eyes again and lifted himself up on his elbows so he could look at Zayn who sat down in the sofa with Perrie. ”A tickle fight you very much participated in.” 

Zayn pretended not to hear him and hugged Perrie instead. 

”You guys ready to taste some wine?” Eleanor said. ”Because we kind of need to leave now if we want any wine or chocolate.”

”I never say no to chocolate.” Niall said and bounced against the door.

”Of course you don’t.” Louis said with a sigh and got up from the bed.

\-----------

If Louis had to admit it, he was a little tipsy when he left the basement to go and eat lunch. And seeing Harry’s lips all red and glossy from all the wine didn’t make it better. But now when his stomach was full of glazed duck he started to sober up again. 

Him and Zayn stood outside the big front doors and were looking out over the castle-yard while they waited for the guy Zayn had bribed to get him to drive out with his sound system all the way out here.

”Have you and Perrie talked anything about the wedding yet?” Louis asked. 

Zayn was leaning over the railing to the big stone stairs and seemed to be a little captivated by fountain in the middle of castle-yard. But nevertheless he laughed a little and nodded. ”Yeah. A lot actually. It’s weird you know. Knowing that in a year or so, I will be married.” He looked up at Louis. ”It’s crazy man.” 

Louis smiled. Zayn seemed so happy and Louis was really happy for him. They’re best mates when it all comes down to it. 

”You and Harry seem to be getting along well.” Zayn said then. He tilted his head and looked at Louis with curious eyes. 

Louis nodded absently. ”Yeah. I. I really like him. He’s..I don’t actually know what he is. He’s just great.” 

Zayn stood up and put his hand on Louis bicep. ”That’s great Lou. And you know. He really likes you too. Everyone can see that.” The resurrecting words really warmed. Louis was really glad that he had Zayn. Eleanor were a wonderful friend too, but sometimes she didn’t understand him as good as Zayn. And who knew. Maybe Zayn was right (it seemed like he always were), maybe Harry did like him a little. 

They both looked up as a car entered through the big gates and drove up to the big stairs. ”Let’s get down to business.” Zayn said and quickly ran down the stairs.

They lifted out the sound system from the car and then Louis sneaked into the castle to check if it was clear to carry it to his room. Fortunately, the corridors were empty. The adults often liked to rest for a bit after lunch before they got on with the next activity (’A special surprise’ as his aunt called it when she announced this afternoons activity).

With a little help from Zayn’s servant they got the sound system safely to his room. Then they thanked the guy a hundred times and Zayn did not so subtly stick a twenty pound note into the mans chest pocket. 

”Jesus christ.” Louis said and eyed the enormous speakers. ”Wont the whole castle hear every single fucking note with this thing?” 

”Nah. We probably can’t have it at full volume, but I think we will be still be happy with it.”

Still, they did a little test to see how far they could go with the volume. Louis was standing outside and listened as Zayn increased the volume gradually. When Louis could hear the music more than just a little he opened the door and went back into the room. The volume were much higher in there. 

”Must be the thick walls.” Zayn said and turned off the music and stood up. 

”This will be epic.” Louis said excitedly and gave Zayn a fistbump. 

”Yeah. Looking forward to getting totally plastered. Now let’s go so we don’t miss this very special surprise. Who knows, maybe it’s more alcohol!”

\-----------

It was not more alcohol.

But it were something so much cooler! 

When Louis and Zayn came down to the foyer they found that all the guests were already there. Louis found his parents who were for once not in the middle of the crowd but instead slightly outside the big group of people.

”Hi mum, hi dad. What’s going on?” He said and gestured against all the people. 

”I have actually no idea. We will be led to the ‘big surprise’ hopefully sometime soon. You know your aunt. Always dragging out on everything to lift up the spirit.” His dad gave him a tired smile. 

”What have you been up to baby? We have hardly even seen you except at the dinners this week.” His mother spoke with a soft voice. 

Well. It would be kind of hard to explain what he had done the whole week. He didn’t think ‘trying to seduce Harry’ were the right thing to say right now. He settled for something that was true, but maybe didn’t tell them the whole story. ”I’ve hanged out with my friends. Spent a lot of time with Harry. Yeh.” He shrugged a little and hoped that they didn’t notice his discomfort.

”He seems to be a nice young man.” It was something in his mothers voice that made Louis wonder if she suspected anything. He swallowed and nodded firmly. 

A man from the staff had started to go around and divide people in to groups of six to seven people. And Louis wanted to give his mother a big tight hug when she said to him that they wanted to be in the same group as sir Twist and his family.

Soon enough Louis and Harry walked next to each other as they were following the man who had divided them into groups. They were walking around the castle and past the tennis pitches and continued up a hill.

”You have any idea what we’re gonna do?” Harry asked him. 

”I have no clue. Are you up for a guess?” 

”Okay. Hmm...what do you say about playing cricket? Seems like something all you people use to do.” 

Louis laughed. ”Oh god I hope not.” 

They climbed up the hill and when they finally were at the top Louis gasped because wow. This time his aunt really had outdone herself.

In the valley on the other side of the hill stood a number of colourful hot air balloons. 

”Whow.” Harry said as they were getting closer to them. ”Have you ever gone into one of those?” 

”Never.” Louis said and looked up at the balloon that were the closest to them. They were so much bigger than what they look like when you’re seeing them high up in the sky. 

Harry, Louis and their parents climbed onboard on one that were glowing red. Then they waited. They wouldn’t start going until everyone was in their balloons. Louis actually felt a little bit nervous. He wasn’t really afraid of heights but. Fuck. They would be very high up. 

Harry leaned against the railing and looked anxiously at him. Louis could hear his own parents talk to sir Twist and Harry’s mom but it sounded very far away. He took deep breaths. 

”Are you okay Lou?” Harry had come closer without him noticing. 

”Yeah. It’s just. We’re gonna be like very high up. And that’s, you know. Kind of scary.” 

Harry nodded. Someone behind shouted that they were ready to go. Louis tried to focus on keeping he’s breathing steady. 

”It’s alright.” Harry said while they slowly rose up in the air. He quickly looked behind them to check what their parents where doing and must have decided that they were busy because he stepped closer to Louis and mumbled. ”It’s okay.” He took his hand in his and sneaked a glance at their parents again. His and Louis’ bodies hid their linked hands and Louis could practically feel the warmth from Harry hand that slowly floated over to his own body and made all his fear disappear. 

He looked out over the landscape that slowly grew smaller the higher up in the air they rose. It was beautiful. He looked over at Harry and found that he was already staring at him. His lip were in between his teeth and he looked so stunning with they wind playing in his hair and he looked so, so kissable. 

If his parents hadn’t been there he would have done it. He would have kissed him. But there was no panic. They would have plenty of time for kissing at the party tomorrow. Harry stroked his thumb over Louis knuckles and Louis couldn’t hide his smile even if he tried.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a long chapter. Or longer than the other at least. Now when school has ended I have more time for writing and I put much more effort into it so that's why it has taken a little bit longer time. 
> 
> I hope you like this chapter and i'm already writing on the next one! Keep commenting and give me feedback because that makes me happy!
> 
> Happy reading!

Louis pov:

Sadly, they couldn’t stay like that for the whole balloon ride. That would have made Louis’ parents kind of suspicious. So after a while of quiet soft whispers and hand holding they had to pull apart and socialise with their parents.

”Isn’t it beautiful Louis?” His mother said with a happy sigh and put her arm around his shoulders. 

”Yes. Very. A little bit high though.” He said, frowning as he did so. When Harry didn’t hold his hand it was much harder to not feel faint about the height. 

His father laughed loud at that. ”Theres nothing called ‘too high’ my son! As I use to say: ‘the higher up you are, the higher you can reach’!” He nodded with satisfaction at his own statement.

Louis wrinkled his nose and muttered quietly and mostly too himself; ”The closer to solid ground and further away from things that I can fall down from and die, the better.” No one except Harry seemed to hear that though and he had sense enough to hid his laugh with a loud cough. 

As their parents once chattered on happily again, and when his mom had taken away her arm from his shoulders, Louis caught sight of Liam and Niall in a yellow balloon a little bit further away. He made Harry aware of this. 

”They look terrified. Both of them.” Harry said, like he couldn’t understand that people were afraid of hot air balloon rides. 

Louis poked his belly. ”See! I’m not the only one that’s afraid of heights.” 

”No but you’re cute, so that’s different.” Harry said with a smug grin. 

That cheeky bastard! Louis, of course, started blushing like an idiot and his heart was beating faster than the bass in a dubstep song. 

He hit Harry over the head which didn’t help at all because Harry started laughing. ”Idiot.” Louis muttered, crossed his arms and glared at the stupid, beautiful creature in front of him. Harry just continued laughing and petted him lightly on the shoulder.

Louis turned his head so he didn’t get the sun right in his eyes. Or was it Harry’s smile? It was kind of the same thing. Anyway, when he did so, he saw that the yellow balloon had come much closer and that Niall and Liam were waving at them. He waved back and so did Harry. 

”It’s so damn high!” Niall shouted cheerfully, although he clearly was frightened by the distance between himself and the ground. Liam was just standing next to Niall and Louis could see even from this far away that he was thinking of the security of the balloons and other such things.

”I know!” Louis shouted back and pretended to faint so Harry had to catch him. 

”Keep an eye on Lou, Harry! With his bad luck you never know what can happen!” Niall shouted and winked at them. 

”I will!” Harry laughed. 

Louis gave Niall the finger. ”Wait until we’re down on the ground you little sh...” He stopped himself as he remembered that his parents stood just a meter behind him. Instead he shouted; ”Neither of you will get to dance with me at ball tonight!” And then he turned his back agains the yellow balloon and it’s passengers. 

”Ball?” Harry said with wide eyes. ”Is there a ball tonight?” 

No one seemed to tell Harry all these things. Wasn’t it Robin’s job to do that? Not that Louis minded telling Harry about the ball. But he felt sorry for Harry that apparently weren’t updated at all. 

”Yeah. After the big dinner tonight there will be some dancing.” He shrugged. ”It’s not really a ball, but people will be nicely dressed and they will dance so...” He shrugged again and gave Harry a cheeky smile. ”Who knows, I might change my mind and let you dance with me anyway.” 

Harry didn’t answer. He just bit his lip and looked kind of worried. 

”Whats the matter?” Louis asked worriedly. He had no idea why Harry looked so anxious and kind of...nervous? 

Harry sighed and looked down on the floor of the balloon and mumbled quietly; ”I don’t know how to dance.” 

\-----------

Harry’s pov:

”Louis, are you sure this is a good idea?”

When they had arrived down on the ground again (and after Louis had pinched Niall’s arm really hard) Louis had insisted on teaching Harry how to dance. 

”It’s easy I promise! And we have the whole afternoon free before the big birthday dinner tonight so theres plenty of time for you to make mistakes!” Louis had said and then he had dragged Harry along to his room. 

And now he stood there, in the middle of Louis’ big room, while Louis fiddled with Zayn’s ridiculously big sound system that were set up for the benefit of the party tomorrow. 

”The speakers are great and all. But theres a little too many buttons and levers for my taste. I don’t get how Zayn remembers what everything does.” Louis said and stood up straight. 

Either Louis had not heard him or maybe he had just ignored answering the question. Harry decided to try again. He cleared his throat. ”Is this really a good idea?” 

Louis turned around and smiled big before walking over to him. ”Of course!” And before Harry had the time to protest he continued; ”Now let’s not make this too complicated. I will just show you the basics.” 

Louis first showed him how to hold his hands. ”One hand here...” He took Harry’s left hand in his own ”...and one hand here.” He took Harry’s right hand and put it on the small of his back. It felt very intimate and Harry’s whole body started to tingle with a nice warm feeling. ”Now when you’re dancing with me, I will put my other hand on your elbow. But if you’re dancing with a girl, theres a chance that she will hold the skirt of her dress with that hand. But I will not. Because I’m not wearing any dress. And i’m not gonna do it any time soon either.” 

”What a pity.” Harry smirked at Louis who just stuck out his tongue at him and then continued the ‘dance lesson’ with showing the steps. 

It turned out to be much more simple than Harry had expected and after a few failed attempts they whirled around on the floor without any bigger difficulties. 

Now when Harry could relax, and not worry so much on stepping on Louis’ feet, he could also take in the scene in it’s entirety. He could also very much feel every place where he and Louis touched each other, almost like they were burning. But it was a really nice heat, not uncomfortable in any way. 

And he could also see all of Louis’ features up close now; featherlight hair, cheekbones so sharp that you could nearly cut yourself on if you touched them, pink lips, long dark eyelashes, light stubble, and those blue blue beautiful eyes. Louis smiled at him and lovely crinkles appeared by his eyes. 

”You’re staring.” Louis pointed out, clearly amused. 

Harry shook his head to come back to reality and that made them lose sync in the dance for a while but Louis had soon ruled it out for them again. 

After a while Harry just needed to ask: ”And you just continue like this until the songs over?” 

Louis stopped and struck his hand on his forehead. ”The music! I forgot all about it!” 

”It’s okay. I think I’m done learning how to dance anyway.” Harry said. He still had his hand on the small of Louis back and he had no plan on moving it away from there any time soon either. 

They stood there for a while, just quietly watching each other, before Louis suddenly started to move. Closer! A part of Harry started to panic because: Oh God. This couldn’t be real life. Another part of Harry, a much bigger part, screamed excitedly. 

Louis put his hands on Harry’s shoulder and got even closer. He couldn’t believe that this was happening. He closed his eyes slowly. They were going to kiss! They were going to kiss! They were going to kiss! They were going to...

*knock knock knock*

....be interrupted. Again. 

Harry opened his eyes and looked right at Louis who were just a few centimetres away from him. 

*knock knock knock* 

Louis sighed and removed his hands from Harry’s shoulders and went to open the door. Just a few seconds later the room was filled with people. 

”Hiya Harry!” Niall said and gave him a wave before he threw himself on Louis bed. 

Eleanor smiled when she saw him. ”I had a feeling you would be here.” She winked and sat down in the sofa. Liam, Zayn and Perrie squeezed in next to her.

It was not that he didn’t like Louis friends, that was for sure, but their timing was horrible. He had been just a few inches away from kissing Louis Tomlinson. Louis Tomlinson! He had the right to be disappointed. 

And if he was not mistaken, Louis was disappointed too. He closed the door and dragged himself over to the bed and sat down next to Niall’s feet and massaged his temples tiredly. It made Harry a little happier to see that he wasn’t the only one who were frustrated over the lost kiss. 

”So...what’s happening?” Zayn said and grinned knowingly towards Harry and Louis. 

”Nothing.” Louis said and then added quietly so probably only Harry and Niall could hear him. ”Thanks to you.” 

Harry smiled to himself. Louis was definitely disappointed. 

”Sorry mate.” He heard Niall say quietly in a slightly panicked apologetic tone. 

Harry sat down on the bed next to Louis. He didn’t want to be the only one who stood up. It would look weird.

Louis didn’t look at him when he sat down but he almost directly started to draw patterns with his fingers on Harry’s thighs. It was quite nice. Zayn didn’t like Louis’ attitude though; 

”Don’t be such a mood-killer now Louis! We have just been hundreds of meters up in sky in fucking air balloons! How can you not be hyped?” Zayn asked. 

”He was probably just as scared as me and Liam.” Niall said sagely.

”I wasn’t scared!” Liam sounded slightly insulted. 

Niall snorted. ”Pfft. You could barely talk while we were up there.” 

A wild discussion began about which of them that had been frightened or not and Zayn claimed that he had been perfectly fine while Eleanor and Perrie said that it had looked like he were about to faint in any second. 

”It’s okay Zaynie. I wasn’t so cocky when I was up there either.” Louis said and winked to Zayn who rolled his eyes at him and sat back in the sofa with a grouchy look on his face. 

”Were you afraid Harry?” Niall wondered and leaned up on his elbows so he could see Harry better. 

”Ehm...no, actually. I have never been afraid of heights so...it was just really cool.” Harry said thoughtfully. The others hummed in agreement and then the room fell silent. Louis continued to draw patterns on his thigh, it tingled a bit but he didn’t move, afraid that louis would stop if he did so.

”You know Harry...” Zayn started and broke the silence. ”...we have known you for a few days now, but still, we don’t know a shit about you.” 

Harry ducked his head and demanded himself not to blush. He wasn’t that shy. Actually, he usually wasn’t shy at all. But...this was something different. This was LOUIS TOMLINSON. Or well. Louis Tomlinson and his friends. And they wanted to get to know him. And THAT made him shy. He once again tried to think of something interesting to tell them but came up with nothing. So he had to tell them the same boring thing as he told Louis some days ago.

”Well. I’m twenty years old, i’m from Cheshire, I like music and yeah...that’s about it. I’m not really an interesting person.” 

”Harry can play guitar and he sings reeeeeaaaally good.” Louis said out of nowhere. And okay, this time Harry DID blush. Because. Wow. Louis had just somewhat complimented him. 

”That’s really cool man.” Zayn looked kind of impressed and that made Harry blush even more. Hopefully they didn’t ask him to sing for them. Because right now he didn’t really feel capable of singing. And he would probably just embarrass himself anyway so. 

”That’s awesome! I play too! We have to jam sometime!” Niall stated and sounded more excited than ever. 

”Sure.” Harry said. He actually really liked Niall’s idea, and Niall was a really nice lad. He didn’t have so many friends that were interested in music so it was always nice to meet people that he could talk and play music with. And if he met Niall sometime after this week was over...there was a small chance that he would meet Louis too.

”And Li, Zayn and Lou can join in too! Did you know that they can sing? They're really good actually!” Okay. So there was a big chance that he would meet Louis. He made a mental victory dance and then he answered Niall;

”I didn’t know about Zayn and Liam. But I’ve heard Louis sing and he’s amazing.” 

Louis looked up at him with big eyes that for a moment were filled fondness and warmth and then it changed into a mix of sass and amusement. ”He’s delirious. I hit him over the head while we were up in the balloon and now he’s clearly confused.” He petted Harry’s curls lightly to calm Harry’s so-called ‘confusion’ and Harry made an involuntary shiver. 

”Don’t argue now Louis. You know as well as us that you’re good. Why not just admit it? I mean, I can proudly admit that i’m really good so why can’t you?” Zayn said and gave Louis a big smile. 

Perrie, that sat next to Zayn, just rolled her eyes. But Harry could see the fond smile that appeared on her lips when Zayn put his arm around her shoulders. 

”Because you’re a dickhead and that’s the difference.” Louis said sassily and stood up and lifted his arms over his head to stretch them out. When he did so, his shirt slid up a bit and flashed Louis tanned, slimmed waist and stomach. Harry had to look away quickly and try not to drool. 

”Yeah, but i’m a dickhead that can sing.” Zayn said smugly and wiggled his eyebrows. 

”Whatever. Get out of my room now so I can make myself pretty for this dinner-dance-ball-birthday thing!” 

Louis shooed them all out but just before Harry was about to leave, and go to make himself ready for the dinner, Louis stopped him. 

He stepped right into Harry’s personal space and looked him deep in the eye. ”I hope you save a dance for me tonight.” Was all he said before he gave Harry a quick kiss on the cheek and then stepped back into his room and closed the door. 

It was safe to say that Harry wasn’t walking back to his room. He was flying. 

\-----------

Louis’ pov:

Louis had eaten many fancy dinners in his lifetime. But he had to admit that this was really something. 

As an appetizer, they got chilli marinated scallops with a dollop of avocado cream. For main course they got a crispy duck breast with a potato cake and blackberry sauce. And then they got TWO desserts! (His aunt had a fondness for desserts. You could see that on her...well...shape.) First they got white and dark chocolate mousse with toffee biscuits and passionfruit sauce and lastly they got glace au four with blueberries and rum. Louis were so full when the dinner was finished that he seriously wondered if he, or anyone, was able to dance after that much food. 

He had seen glimpses of his friends during the dinner; Niall who really tried to eat slowly because his father didn’t like how he nearly attacked the plate when he got his food, Liam who took small sips of his wine and then there was Harry that looked utterly confused when he got his second dessert. He had raised his eyebrows and looked around at everybody else who got their plates with glace au four. That had made Louis smile. It reminded him so much of the their first evening here when Harry had problems with which spoon to eat dessert with. 

It was announced that the evening would continue in the salon on the fourth floor but Louis stayed in the dining hall for a while and small-talked with some people that he usually met at these kinds of events. 

He didn’t really know them but it was his duty to keep a good relation with them so he talked and laughed politely at their jokes and gave the old ladies his dazzling prince charming smile. He did everything he had been taught. Even if he never really felt as himself when he did it. 

”We better go off to the salon now. We don’t want to miss the dancing.” Mark said and chuckled. 

They said goodbye to Mr and Mrs Pinkerton and Louis gave old Miss Birkenhead a kiss on the back of her hand and a wink before him and his parents walked out of the dining hall and steered their steps against the stairs that led them up on the fourth floor. 

”You did good my son.” Mark gave him a clap on the back. Louis nodded a little absent. ”You will manage the interview without any problems.” Mark stated and that got Louis’ attention. 

”Interview? What interview?” He asked. He hadn’t heard about an interview in the nearby future. 

”Mark, I think we forgot to tell Louis about the interview.” Jay said and looked a little worried. His mother always worried too much. 

”That may be the case.” Mark didn’t sound worried at all. That was a good thing with his father; he trusted that Louis could manage things on his own and that he didn’t need months of preparation. ”There will be a reporter and cameraman from an online magazine that will appear during the ball and she probably wants a few words from you.” 

”Okay.” That’s nothing that he hadn’t done before. 

They walked in to the salon and were met by couples that were already dancing to the music from the live band that stood on a low stage in the corner of the room. Other people that weren’t dancing stood in small groups and talked and laughed and sipped from their drinks that were served just next to the entrance. 

He saw that Eleanor, Niall and Harry stood next to the door that went to the balcony. He said goodbye to his parents and walked up to them. 

”Aren’t you looking fancy folks.” He said as a greeting.

Eleanor snorted. ”Yeah. I can hardly move in this dress.” She made a grimace and flattened out the long skirt on her deep-blue dress. Then she looked up at Louis and started to smile. ”I see that you two still matching shirts.” She pointed between Louis and Harry. Harry had just like Louis kept his button up on and just put on a black blazer over. 

”Yes. Clearly we are. But that just proves that we both have a splendid taste when it comes to button ups. Or what do you say Harry?” Louis gave Harry a smug smile. 

”Probably.” Harry said and returned the smile equally as smug. Eleanor tried to look annoyed but ended up smiling fondly at them. 

Louis decided that it was time to give Niall some attention. He laid his arm around his irish friend. ”So Nialler, what did you think about the dinner?” 

”Amazing.” Niall said dreamingly. ”Sad that it was over so quickly...” 

They all laughed and Niall just smiled merrily at them. 

”Soooo...where’s the Bradford beauty and his girlfriend?” Louis asked after they had stopped laughing. 

Niall pointed at the dancing people and Louis stretched his neck and spotted Zayn and Perrie dancing and looking very much in love. 

”They’re sickening sweet.” Louis said and hoped that it wasn’t completely obvious that he was jealous. He wanted to be sickening sweet too. Preferably with Harry. 

”Yes completely disgusting.” Eleanor agreed. 

Louis changed the subject so they wouldn’t understand how jealous he was. ”Where’s Mr neat-and-proper then?” 

”Talking to his parents.” Eleanor said and gestured to a group of people a little further away. Mr Payne said something and the people around him laughed. 

Harry suddenly poked his shoulder. ”Who are they?” He said. Louis turned around to see what people Harry was talking about and spotted the reporter and cameraman that his father had talked about. Two guards walked on each side of them.

”That’s a reporter and cameraman from some online magazine. They are gonna make a feature about my aunt and this little party.” 

Harry nodded to show that he understood. Then he said in a slightly curious tone; ”But what are the guards for? We’re not gonna attack them are we?” 

Louis, Eleanor and Niall broke out into laughter. Harry looked so totally confused that Louis felt sorry for the boy and he stopped laughing immediately in order not to hurt Harry. 

”The guards are there for us. So they not attacking us or ask impropriate questions and such things. And the cameraman have to have the guards allowing if he wants to shoot something.” Louis explained.

”Oh.” Harry’s face turned red now when he understood why they laughed at him. He laughed awkwardly at himself too. 

Louis put his hand on Harry’s shoulder and gave him a resurrecting smile. Just when he was about to say something sweet to Harry, Eleanor cleared her throat and nodded towards the equipage that was on it’s way towards them. Louis removed his hand quickly from Harry’s shoulder and gave the reporter a bright smile.

The reporter was a woman, probably in the middle of her forties. Her hair was clearly bleached and she wore far to much makeup. She sported a tight pink sheath dress and high heels that she obviously had some problems walking in. She looked just like many of the journalists and reporters he usually met. 

When they were just a few meters away from Louis and his friends, one of the guards asked them to stop. The other guard walked up to Louis and asked if it was okay with him that they made a small interview. Louis approved it and the woman and her cameraman was signed to come up to them. 

The reporter gave him a big smile. ”Hi Louis. I’m Kate Emsworth and this is my cameraman Brandon Hale. We’re from the online magazine ‘regalOnline.com’ and we would like to make an small interview with you if that’s okay?” She sounded far too polished, just like every other reporter he had met. 

”No problem.” He said in the same polished tone. 

Eleanor and Niall backed off a bit so as not to disturb the interview, and Eleanor tugged a bit on Harry’s shirtsleeve and quietly told him to back a bit him too. Harry looked surprised but took some steps back and then looked up at Louis. Louis gave him thumbs up before turning back to the reporter. 

”...3...2...1...take!” The cameraman, Brandon, said and then the interview started. 

”Hi i’m Kate Emsworth and you’re watching a videoclip on ‘regalOnline.com’. I’m here in this beautiful castle which belongs to todays birthday girl, Hilda Tomlinson. With me I have your favourite prince charming; Louis Tomlinson.” 

Louis smiled confidently into the camera. 

”So Louis...” Kate turned to him. ”...your aunt invited you and all the other guests to spend a whole week at this castle in context to celebrate her birthday. How has the week been so far?” 

He smiled at Kate and stood up a bit straighter. ”The week has been absolutely amazing. It’s always nice to meet my aunt and all the nice people here. And this castle is truly fantastic.” 

Kate nodded. ”It really is.” Then she continued; ”If i’m correct you have done something really exciting today. Can you tell us about it?” 

”Yes! Today we have had the incredible opportunity to fly in a hot air balloon. And I will give you an exclusive fact...” He said and looked slyly into the camera. Kate moved her microphone closer to Louis and looked really excited. ”...the balloon i flew in was red.” 

He loved doing that. Start the sentence like he would actually give them some important fact or tell them a secret or something and then just destroy it by saying something completely pointless instead. It was his way of having fun during interviews that he found kind of boring. 

”Ooohhh.” Kate made a noise like he actually had said something interesting. He could hear Niall and Harry try to hide their laughter behind coughs but they failed miserably. 

”So lastly Louis, the night is still young. What will happen after this interview?” Kate lifted an eyebrow and if Louis wasn’t mistaken she tried to look inviting and...sexy? 

He chuckled and gave both Kate and the camera his most charming smile and lifted one of his eyebrows too. ”Well. I hope that I get to dance a bit and just have a nice evening...and then I hope that I get a good night’s sleep.” 

Kate looked a little disappointed but she quickly put on a mask of fake cheerfulness. ”Then I wish you a continued pleasant evening. Thank you so much Louis for taking time for us. And now we will try to find the birthday girl herself.” Both Kate and Louis gave the camera one last big smile and then the interview was over. 

”Thank you.” Kate said when they had turned off the camera. Brandon nodded in agreement. 

”It was nothing.” Louis smiled politely then Kate, Brandon and the guards strolled off to find his aunt. 

Louis turned around so he faced his friends and gave them a smile. Niall, that could’t contain himself any longer, broke out into a loud laughter and so did Harry. Eleanor must had walked off somewhere because he didn’t see her anywhere near right now. 

”‘The balloon I flew in was red’? ’I hope to get a good night’s sleep’?” Niall got out between his laughter. 

”I just answered her questions.” Louis said innocently but he could not really hide his amusement. 

Niall dried his tears that he had got from laughing so hard. ”Well you may be the prince, but you’re the king of fucking up interviews!” 

\-----------

The evening went on and at some point they all were gathered next to the balcony-door. Louis had just danced with Eleanor and she had stepped on his feet all the time on purpose so that after a while he had done the same to her and it ended with that they were laughing too much to dance. 

Harry were talking to Zayn and Niall when Louis and Eleanor returned to the small group of people. Harry was so concentrated on the conversation that he didn’t even notice that Louis was back. 

Louis took advantage of the situation and sneaked up behind Harry and put his hands over those beautiful green eyes and completely interrupted the conversation. Harry let out a howl before he started laughing. ”Louis. I know it’s you.” 

”How can you be so sure?” Louis said without removing his hands. 

”Because those small hands can’t belong to anyone else.” Harry said and that made the others laugh. 

Louis removed his hands. ”Well now I feel insulted.” The others laughed even more. He crossed his arms and pouted. 

Harry turned around so he faced him and gave him a dimpled smile. ”I didn’t say that it was a bad thing.” 

”Maybe it just looks like I have small hands because you’re a giant?” Louis said and smirked at the curly-haired giant in front of him. 

”And now i’m offended.” It didn’t look like Harry was offended at all. He still smiled and his dimples were still on full display. Louis couldn’t resist pinching Harry’s cheek which made Harry laugh. Then he suddenly stopped laughing and looked intensely at Louis instead. 

”What? Do I have something on my face?” Louis dragged his hands all over his face to try to get away whatever Harry stared at. 

”No.” Harry removed Louis hands from his face and smiled mischievously. ”But I just remembered that I promised someone a dance.” 

Harry had a twinkle in his eyes and Louis could feel how his face went hot. 

”Yeah?” Louis bit his lip and looked up at Harry through his eyelashes. 

”Yes.” Harry’s voice was soft now and so was his smile. ”But...” He looked around in the room and gave Louis an uncertain glance. ”...how...eh..you know...people...and stuff...” 

Louis understood. They couldn’t just go out on the dance floor and take a spin. But lucky for them, Louis had a plan.

He would lie if he said that the thought about dancing with Harry hadn’t slipped through his mind a few (= very many) times. So throughout the evening a plan had slowly taken place in his head. 

He took Harry’s hand and walked quickly over to the balcony-door. His friends didn’t try to stop them, they probably knew that it wasn’t any point, or maybe they just didn’t want to. 

Anyway, Louis opened the door and slipped quickly through the tiny gap. Harry, that was a bit bigger than Louis, had to open the door a bit more so he was able to squeeze through. When he was safely out on the other side he closed the door quietly and turned to Louis who stood in the middle of the stone balcony. 

It was a warm, starry night and thanks to the thin door they could still hear the music from the salon clearly. 

Harry walked up to him with a silly smile on his face and bowed down, cleared his throat and looked up at Louis. ”May I have this dance?” He held out his hand and kept smiling that silly beautiful smile. He had gotten some of his curls in his face and Louis couldn’t help but softly brush them away.

Louis took Harry’s hand in his and nodded. ”Yes.” 

Harry stood up straight and put his right hand on the small of Louis’ back and kept holding Louis’ hand with his left, just like Louis had showed him. Louis put his other hand on Harry’s elbow and then for a while they just looked at each other, a bit shyly, before they started to move. 

They twirled around slowly on the balcony and stared into each others eyes. This was perfect, Louis thought and closed his eyes just to relish the moment for a while. He felt Harry’s hand rest on the small of his back and a part of him just wanted Harry to move the hand just a bit further down... 

The song ended and Louis opened his eyes slowly. Harry was close and he could see the reflection of the stars in Harry’s eyes. He could smell the night: grass, the flowers from the garden, summer, and he could smell Harry’s cologne. It was sweet but still fresh and somewhere hidden underneath were Harry’s own smell. 

Harry stroked Louis’ cheek gently and then slowly pulled him closer. It was now or never, Louis didn’t even care if his friends, or his parents, or Harry’s parents or even his aunt and the reporter came out here now and found them. He put his arms around Harry’s neck and smiled softly at the boy that he already had fallen so hard for. And then he closed his eyes and leaned in and finally, gently, pressed his lips against Harry’s. 

He didn’t need to have his eyes open to see stars. All he needed was Harry’s lips against his. And Harry’s arms around his waist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have any ideas that you think would fit in with the story I will happily accept them! And like I said, I get really happy if you give me feedback or write a comment! You can talk to me on tumblr too: www.fridaannamaria.tumblr.com


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Late. As usual. Buuuuuuuut this is a really long chapter (It feels like I'm always saying that haha) and you finally get to read about the party! I'm already writing on the next chapter! 
> 
> Thank you so much for the likes and the comments! It means a lot to me! 
> 
> Keep giving me feedback please!
> 
> Happy reading!

Harry’s pov:

After a couple of minutes they slowly broke apart. 

Harry’s heart were beating like a drum and there was more than butterflies in his stomach. It was a whole zoo! A whole zoo that were having a wild house party. 

Louis looked up at him and gave him a shy smile and bit his lip. 

Louis was so beautiful that it almost hurt. He was so petit and so soft and his body was so amazing and his face was stunning and he was just perfect in every single way! He couldn’t believe that he and Louis, the prince of England, had just kissed! He had to say it out loud. Just to understand that this was actually real life.

”We just kissed.” 

Louis laughed and it seemed like there was sparkles in his eyes. ”Yes. Indeed we did.” 

A wide grin spread on Harry’s face. He thought about saying something like that he wouldn’t say no to another kiss but right then the balcony doors opened and Eleanor stuck her head out through the gap between the door and the wall. 

”Just so you know, everybody has kind of begun to leave and your parents are probably looking for you.” She said and then disappeared again. She probably pretended that she didn’t see how they were still holding each other. 

Louis sighed. ”I guess we have to go then.” He reached out his hand and petted Harry’s curls lightly. Harry nodded but closed his eyes and didn’t move because it felt so good when Louis brushed through his hair. 

They stayed like that for a moment. Louis brushing through Harry’s hair and lightly scratching his scalp which made Harry nearly purr of satisfaction. Then they realised that even the music had stopped playing. Which meant that everybody probably had left. 

”We better go find our parents.” Louis gave him a look that clearly said that he rather stay out there on the balcony, petting Harry’s hair forever. But they didn’t want anyone to get suspicious so it was probably for the best that they left now. 

Harry nodded once and then they slowly let go of each other and walked back towards the door quietly. 

Louis opened the door slightly and peeked out through the gap and then he turned back to Harry with a sly look on his face. 

”The coast is clear, I think. The only ones left are the band. Let’s sneak past them!” 

Louis seemed to think that this was rather exciting because when he opened the door and walked in to the salon he tipped on his toes and acted like he was in some sort of spy movie. 

Harry just walked behind him and smiled fondly at the boy who were supposed to be older than him but acted like a six year old. The band didn’t seem to give them much thought though, they were busy packing their instruments and other stuff together. 

When they were out of the room Louis started walking like normal again and they walked quietly beside each other down the stairs and in to the corridor that led to their rooms. 

Harry’s head was still spinning from the kiss and he wondered how it had turned out this way. Like, he had had a crush on the prince for ages and then he suddenly meet aforementioned prince and now they just shared a kiss on the balcony of a big beautiful castle. It felt more like a fairytale than actual real life. 

They reached Louis’ room and it was then Harry remembered that they were searching for their parents.

”What about our parents?” It was not that he was in a very big need to see his mum and Robin, but Eleanor had said that they probably were looking for him and he didn’t want to make his mum worried. 

Louis turned towards him. ”Oh I forgot to tell you! It’s no idea to go and find our parents now. It’s really late and they have probably gone to bed. You know, we were out on the balcony for quite a long time.” He gave Harry a wink and then locked up his door. 

Harry had no idea what time it was because he had left his phone in his room but he trusted that Louis knew this kind of stuff so he just went with it. 

Louis once again turned to Harry when he had locked up and opened his door.

”Goodnight Haz.” He stood up on his toes and gave Harry a quick peck on the lips and then he smiled that cute smile that made his eyes crinkle and disappeared behind his door. 

Harry just stood outside Louis’ door for a while and tried to understand what just happened. 

Louis had kissed him. Louis had called him ‘Haz’. And Louis had to stand on his tippy toes to reach Harry’s lips. (Adorable!) 

He didn’t even notice that he had started walking towards his own room until he was just outside the door. He let himself in and then collapsed on the bed. He was tired but the giddiness from the kiss on the balcony and the things that had happened outside Louis door took over and swept away the worst of his fatigue. 

He couldn’t remember any time that he had been this happy. He kind of wanted to scream and dance and jump around. And he wanted to jerk off. 

Suddenly he felt like it was nothing more he wanted to do than that. He threw his clothes off and crawled under the covers in his bed.

Let’s say it wasn’t the first time he wanked and thought of Louis. He was used to building up different scenarios in his head. But now when he actually knew how it was to have Louis lips against his own it was hundred percent more arousing. 

He came fast and hard all thanks to the feeling of Louis lips that still ghosted on his own and it was probably the best orgasm he ever had. 

Completely exhausted from the day’s exploits and from everything else, he cleaned himself up and cuddled himself in the covers and fell asleep right away, dreaming of Louis and stars and hot air balloons. 

\-----------

Louis’ pov:

When Louis woke up it took a minute for him to understand that yesterday actually happened and that it wasn’t just a dream. And then he remembered that today would be even better probably, because today was the day of the party. And Harry would be there with them. 

He got up and took a shower and then when he had dried himself he just put on some grey jeans and a white t-shirt with a black print on. 

Before he walked out through the door, he took a minute to think about if he should pass by Harry’s room and see if he wanted to accompany him to the dining hall. But maybe Harry was sleeping and Louis didn’t want to disturb him because Harry would really need some sleep if he was partying with him and the rest of the gang tonight. 

So Louis quickly put on his shoes and walked down to the dining hall on his own. 

He was once again not the first one from his group of friends to be in the dining hall for breakfast. Niall, Liam, Eleanor and Perrie did already sit at their usual table close to the breakfast buffet. Niall waved at him, having too much food in his mouth to talk. As usual. 

Louis served himself some waffles and a cup of tea and then he walked over to the table and sat down next to Niall. 

”Good morning people!” He said merrily. 

Niall looked up at him and tried to say something through all the food in his mouth but Louis stopped him by laying one of his hands over his irish friend’s mouth. 

”Dude that’s gross.” He took away his hand and dried it off on Niall’s shoulder, just in case.

Niall chewed and swallowed quickly. ”I said good morning.” 

Louis petted his friend on the head. ”I figured that out.” 

Niall continued eating and Louis turned to Liam who had a bowl of cereal in front of him but ate much more calmly than Niall.

”Any activity today that will delay our festivities?” He asked and dug in to his plate of waffles while he looked expectantly at Liam. 

Liam shook his head and watched as Louis almost missed his mouth with the fork and nearly cut up his chin. ”No. Today we’re free.” 

Louis thought that it was due to that many of the adults, especially his aunt, were sporting a light hangover from yesterdays dinner-ball-dancing-open bar event. He himself, and his friends and Harry (he counted him as more than a friend) had stayed sober considering the party tonight. 

He gave Liam a nod and then he looked at the girls that were small-talking with each other and quickly wondered where Perrie’s other half was. 

”Where’s Zayn?” 

”Sleeping in.” Perrie said and rolled her eyes. ”Said that he wanted to have much energy for tonight.” 

Niall laughed next to him. ”Yeah he will need it! I plan to not be able to stand up straight at the end of the night!” 

Louis gave Niall an high five and Liam just groaned. Poor guy. It would not be easy for him tonight. 

”I’m not really sure if I dare to party with you.” Harry sat down on the empty spot next to Louis. He had a big smile on his face and looked stunning in a thin white sweater with a neckline that dipped so low that if he hadn’t covered himself up his two swallows on his chest would have been fully exposed. 

”Afraid Styles?” Louis lifted an eyebrow and gave Harry a daring smile. 

”Never.” Harry said and looked intensively into Louis’ eyes while a cheeky grin played on his lips. 

Louis had met a couple of boys in his days but he had never met someone just as extraordinary as Harry Styles. He always surprised Louis with his cheeky comments and his amazing dimples and his curly curly hair and his green sparkling eyes. And they hadn’t even known each other for a whole week yet! 

Harry had started eating his own waffles and gave him a amused smile. ”You’re staring.” He repeated the words Louis had used yesterday out on the balcony which of course made Louis blush. 

”Is it bothering you?” Louis said and kept staring because he refused to be the shy one. 

”Not at all.” Harry kept eating and giving Louis that shiteating grin which tempted Louis to punch him in the mouth. With his own mouth. 

Zayn were to destroy that plan though because he sat down with a loud thump next to Perrie which caused Harry to look away from Louis. 

”I’m so psyched for tonight!” Zayn said and snatched a bagel of Perrie’s plate. 

”I have a feeling that this will be worse than usual.” Liam put his face in his hands and groaned loudly which made everybody else laugh.

\-----------

They spent the day in Niall’s room, playing Xbox and talking shit. Harry and Louis had teamed up again and were officially beating everybody else’s ass in almost every game they played. 

Half through the fifth game of Fifa Zayn gave up and tossed his controller to Perrie who made a half-hearted attempt to help Liam win the game but it ended up with that the dream team won the game with 6-2. 

”Unbelievable.” Zayn muttered from his place in the corner of the sofa. Harry and Louis just fist bumped and Louis asked if there was somebody else who wanted to challenge the unbeatable duo. 

It turned out that no one wanted to and Louis figured that it was time to move the party over to his room to..well..start the party! 

”I’m just going to get some stuff in my room, but I’ll be there soon.” Harry said and stood up. 

”Okay see you later then.” Louis said and gave the curly haired boy a smile before said curly haired boy left the room. 

”You’re so gonna bang tonight.” Zayn said and gave Louis a smug grin when the door had closed behind Harry. 

Louis felt his face getting hot. ”No were not!” He said and glared at Zayn who were having a right laugh because of Louis’ blushing face. 

”Yes you are and the whole castle will probably hear you. It will even drown out the sound of the music and..” 

Zayn didn’t get to continue because Louis attacked him and punched him on the shoulders. 

”Okay okay I was kidding save me someone please he’s a maniac I will die com’n Louis stop!” 

Louis stopped for a second just to start tickling Zayn in the next. Zayn shrieked and begged for help in between his laughs but the others just sat there and watched with amused smiles. 

After a while Louis decided that Zayn had enough and moved back and let his friend breath. 

”I need alcohol.” Zayn muttered after a while and that made the others get up on their feet.

”Let’s go!” Niall bounced out of the room with Zayn, who dragged Perrie along, not far behind. 

Louis, Liam and Eleanor took it a little more casual though and Liam locked Niall’s door because Niall seemed to have totally forgot that they were in his room.

When they walked down the hallway towards Louis’ room Eleanor asked him what had happened on the balcony yesterday. Louis stammered when he told them the whole story and blushed deeply when he came to the part when they kissed. Eleanor cooed and Liam petted his back with a proud smile. 

”You look really great together.” He said and that made Louis blush even more. 

”Thanks.” He said shyly. 

”Told you that you were gonna meet someone soon.” Eleanor looked very pleased with being right and Louis felt compelled to lightly buff her with his shoulder. 

”You probably planned this.” 

Eleanor expression changed for just a second but Louis saw it, she looked almost...guilty? 

”DID you plan this?!” He said and looked shocked at her.

She shook her head sharply and looked to be a little bit too much in panic to be telling the truth. ”No Louis, don’t be stupid.” 

He was about to question it but they had just reached his room and Niall stood outside the door and jumped on the spot in clean excitement. 

”Chill down Ireland, we have the whole night on us you know.” 

”Yeah yeah whatever. Open the door now!” 

Louis rolled his eyes and got up his key and unlocked the door. Niall stormed inside and made some weird happy dance around the room. 

Zayn walked up to the sound system and plugged his phone in. A heavy beat filled the room and Louis started to feel more and more excited himself. 

He walked up to the television and started a movie and then paused it. They usually did that so if someone were to knock on the door they shut down the music and rushed to the TV and started the movie and someone got up to open the door. Usually Liam. It was their security plan kind of. 

Perrie and Niall were already dancing in the middle of the floor and Eleanor and Zayn were busy putting up all the alcohol on the coffee table when someone knocked on the door. Eleanor turned down the volume on the big speakers and Louis went to open the door in hope that it was Harry. 

It wasn’t though. It was three members from the kitchen staff who came with their food. They had a trolley with them which they had put different bowls and plates with all kinds of food on. Louis thanked them and gave them a big smile before he took the trolley and rolled it into the room and shut the door. 

”Did you tell them that we were going to have some kind of banquet Niall? Because we could feed all the people in the castle with all this food!”

Niall bounced up to the trolley and looked hungrily down at the different kind of food. ”Nah I just told them that we would eat quite a lot.” He said and took a fist full of caramelised popcorn. 

”You mean that YOU would eat quite a lot.” Zayn said from where he kneeled next to the coffee table and organized the bottles and cans. 

Niall just flipped him off and continued to eat his popcorn. 

Louis walked over to the sofa and sat down and watched Zayn and Eleanor put up the alcohol. It felt like ages since they had done this. It wasn’t uncommon that they all met and partied but it was a long time ago since they all had met at a event like this. And they even had a new member in their little gang now! Harry fitted in perfectly with them and Louis really hoped that he would have a good time tonight with them. 

Speaking of the devil. Right then they heard a knock on the door and Harry walked in before anyone got up and opened it. 

A gasp escaped Louis throat. Harry had changed clothes to black skinny jeans that were ripped at his knees, and hugged his legs so tight that it was a miracle that he had got into them, and a black t-shirt with a neckline that dipped down low on his chest and showed off his tanned skin and his two swallows. Wait. His two swallows? 

Louis only noticed now that Harry had washed away the coverage batter and his tattoos were fully visible. 

Everybody else in the room turned their heads to look at what made Louis gasp and one by one they dropped their chins and watched Harry with big eyes. 

”Hey guys.” Harry said like nothing uncommon had happened. 

Louis stayed in the sofa and watched the scene in front of him. 

Harry stood a few meters into the room and everybody’s eyes was on him. Liam’s mouth opened and closed like he was trying to speak but had forgot how to do it. And Niall had even stopped eating his popcorn. 

Zayn was the first one to speak though. 

”How the hell did you do that?” He got up from where he kneeled next to the coffee table and walked up to Harry. He cautiously touched the human heart that were inked on Harry’s bicep on is left arm. 

Harry didn’t answer though, he just let Zayn continue to eye his tattoos one by one. Niall got up too from where he had sat down on the bed and walked over to Harry. 

”Are they real?” He asked and put his head closer to Harry’s chest to get a better view at the birds. 

”Yeah.” Harry said and shrugged. 

”What?!” Zayn looked up at him with big eyes from where he examined the rose on Harry’s elbow. 

”They’re real.” Harry said once again and smiled at Zayn. 

”How is that even possible?” Zayn stood up straight and gave Harry a baffled look. 

”He covered them.” Louis got tired of Zayn’s attitude and stood up too and walked up to them.

”Robin gave Harry some coverage batter to cover himself up in, because he thought that some of the people here wouldn’t accept Harry with his tattoos.” He said in a tone that clearly said that he thought that was awful. 

”That’s mental.” Niall said and frowned. 

”Yeah. They look awesome man.” Zayn had always wanted tattoos so Louis could understand why he looked so impressed. 

”Thanks.” Harry said and finally showed his shy side a bit because he looked down at his feet and smiled to himself. 

”Well now when we all have realised that Harry’s tattoos are perfect we can start the party.” Louis said and that seemed to break the spell that were hovering in the room. 

Everybody provided themselves with beer or cider and someone turned up the music and it just went up from there.

\-----------

Two hours later they were all buzzing thanks to the alcohol and the party was absolutely brilliant!

Zayn and Perrie were grinding on each other in the corner of the room, Eleanor were standing on top of the coffee table with a cider in her hand and swayed along to the music with closed eyes and Liam that sat down on the floor (Liam had actually drunken more than he usually did and were actually kind of plastered) and were leaning against one of the walls were laughing at Niall.

Niall stood on top of the bed and screamed out the few lyrics that were in the song. He held a beer in his hand and when the beat dropped he bounced around in the bed so heavily that Louis would had been worried that he would break it if it wasn’t for the alcohol that flowed in his blood. 

Louis himself were dancing in the middle of the floor and had really only eyes for one person in the room. Harry. 

Harry sat down in the sofa right now, he and Niall had had a dance-off a couple off minutes ago and after Niall had won (Even if Louis devotedly had voted for Harry) Harry had sat down in the sofa to take a breather. The problem was that Harry looked really hot. Like extremely hot. Sexiest person alive hot. 

His curly hair was messy and the alcohol had made his grin go lazy and his lips plump and his inked skin glistened with sweat. Louis met Harry’s green eyes and Harry bit his lip slowly and sat back in the sofa and spread his legs a bit. The tight black jeans made his legs look even more inviting than usual. 

Louis stopped dancing and instead began walking slowly towards Harry. He didn’t let Harry go with his eyes, not even when he straddled Harry’s lap. 

Harry’s eyes were dark and filled with hunger. Louis clasped his hands behind Harry’s neck and he felt Harry’s big hands travel up and down along his spine. It seemed like Harry was a horny drunk. 

”You know you look kind of good tonight.” Louis said and moved one of his hands up to Harry’s soft curly hair. A weak groan escaped Harry as he started to pull at the lengths. 

”You look more than good.” Harry pulled Louis closer and let his hands rest on Louis ass. 

Louis shivered and rolled his hips down on Harry’s crotch by pure instinct. Harry groaned once again and that was it for Louis. He smashed his lips against Harry’s which made Harry make another strangled noise. Their lips moved against each other and Louis opened his mouth slightly and licked Harry’s lower lip. Harry opened his mouth and let Louis lick into it hungrily. 

Harry grabbed Louis’ ass and spread his hands over his cheeks. Louis moaned into Harry’s mouth and moved his other hand up to Harry’s head and kept pulling Harry’s hair. 

And then they got completely interrupted by Niall who wolf whistled at them. 

”Yeah Tommo! Getting it on! Or in! It kind of depends!” Niall seemed to have moved down from the bed because he were now standing next to the coffee table and downed two shots while Eleanor, who were now laying down on the coffee table and laughed without any sort of control, cheered on.

”Really?” Louis moved his right hand from Harry’s hair and dragged it across his own face. His friends were stupid and he hated them. He lifted himself off Harry’s lap. ”I need a shot.” 

Harry just laughed and slapped Louis’ ass when he turned around to go and get a shot.

Zayn and Perrie seemed to mysteriously had disappeared. Probably into the bathroom for a quicky. And Liam were now laying on the floor, humming to himself. 

Yep. His friends sucked. 

”Niall give me a shot.” He said tiredly to his blonde friend. 

”One for me too.” Two hands sneaked around his waist and he turned his head and saw that the chin who were now resting on his shoulder belonged to Harry. Okay. So Harry was both a horny and a snugly drunk. He could work with that. 

Niall poured some vodka in two shot glasses and handed them over to Louis and Harry before he poured a third shot of vodka for himself. 

”To Ireland! Because Ireland is fucking awesome!” Niall raised his glass before he downed it’s content. 

”To this weird irish guy! Because he’s a moron!” Louis said and raised his glass before he downed his shot. 

Harry giggled and raised his glass too before swallowing the sharp liquid. 

”You guys are cute.” Eleanor said lazily from where she was lying on the coffee table. 

”Pshh. Tell me something I don’t know.” Niall said.

”Not you dumbass. I was talking about these two fuckers.” Eleanor’s language got very badass when she was drunk. 

”We’re cute Harry.” Louis said to Harry and turned to look at the stunning boy.

”Yes. We certainly are.” Harry said and laid his arms around Louis’ waist. 

They might have downed a few more shots after that. And the last thing that Louis remembered was that he and Harry kissed passionately, laying down on the floor. After that everything was blurry.

\-----------

Harry’s pov:

Someone was beating his head really hard. And he had no idea what he had done! He just wanted to get some sleep for god’s sake! It seemed like the person who were beating his head wasn’t content with just doing that so it started beating the rest of his body too. At the same time as it was beating his head! 

Slowly Harry opened his eyes and got blind for a second thanks to the strong light that found it’s way into the room through the window. He laid still for a while, just trying to get used to the light before he slowly started to move his different body parts. They were hurting. What the fuck had he done? 

Suddenly he felt something move next to him and he became perfectly still. Someone were lying next to him. 

When he figured that out he realised that this wasn’t his room. Not his room home in Holmes Chapel but neither his room in the castle. The castle! 

It all came back to him! The week at the castle, Hilda Tomlinson’s birthday, the hot air balloon ride, the kiss on the balcony, the party...the party! 

If he wasn’t completely wrong Louis and him had done some serious stuff yesterday. Like grinding on each other, Louis straddling him, kissing on the floor...and he had lifted Louis up and shoved him against a wall. But that’s as far has his memory went. After that it was black. 

He carefully moved his head as to not make his headache worse and peeked at the person lying next to him. 

It was Louis. 

He were still sleeping softly and his long eyelashes cast shadows over his perfect sharp cheekbones. 

Harry reached out an arm and petted Louis featherlight hair gently. The sleeping man sighed happily and leaned into it. 

How did he end up here? Laying next to Louis, the prince of England, his celebrity crush, in a bed in a castle the day after an amazing party with Louis and his best friends. 

He was just Harry Styles. An ordinary boy with curly hair from Holmes Chapel. He had never been something special really. He was not excessively popular but he wasn’t a complete loner either. He liked his friends and if he wasn’t mistaken they liked him too. But in Harry’s own opinion there was nothing that made him deserve this. He wasn’t incredible enough for Louis Tomlinson. But well. He wasn’t the person who complained in the first place, so he would just enjoy the ride. Pardon the pun. 

He sat up carefully and scanned the room. Wow. What had they even done yesterday? 

There was beer cans and cider bottles everywhere, in the middle of the floor someone had built a pyramid of shot glasses which looked to be full to the brim with vodka except the glasses in the two top layers that were alarmingly empty, there were popcorn and crisps anywhere you looked, there was a pile of clothes the corner of the room and someone had overturned the trolley which the food had arrived on so everything that they hadn’t eaten yesterday were now laying on the floor.

And then there was people sleeping everywhere. 

Eleanor seemed to have crashed on top of the coffee table but were now not far from falling down and hit Liam who had snuggled himself into a ball on the carpet. Zayn and Perrie had conquered the couch and looked adorable, intertwined in each others arms. As for Niall, he slept in the middle of the floor. With a crisp bag as his pillow. Harry had not even known Niall for a week but he still wasn’t surprised. 

He laid down again and continued to stroke Louis’ hair. It was so soft! But it seemed like everything about Louis was soft. His hair, his skin, his lips...

The older boy started to move slightly. Harry didn’t know if Louis would think that it was creepy if he woke up and found that Harry was petting his hair and watching him sleep so he quickly pulled back his hand.

Louis slowly opened his eyes and stared right at Harry. Neither of them said something and for a moment they just looked at each other. But after a couple of minutes Harry couldn’t contain himself any longer and big grin spread on his face.

Louis didn’t even so much as bat an eyelid and kept his facial expression natural, almost bored, when he asked with a raspy voice which made Harry’s whole body tingle: ”Am I dead?” 

Harry blinked uncomprehending at him. ”Why on earth would you be dead?” 

A small smile were tugging on the prince’s lips and one of Louis’ small hands reached out and started tracing patterns on Harry’s naked chest. ”Well my head hurts you see, and you look immeasurably lot like an angel.” 

Harry laughed ”Sorry to disappoint you, but i’m not an angel. And after last night’s exploits I don’t think that any of us will come to heaven.” 

Louis made a grimace. ”To be honest, my memory doesn’t cover the whole evening.” 

”You’re not alone.” 

Louis lifted the covers and peered underneath. ”Well...at least we both have our pants on.” 

\-----------

Three hours and a millions of glasses of water later they all had managed to clean up themselves and the worst mess and make their way down to the dining hall to at least look like they enjoyed breakfast. 

The hangover had hit Zayn, Perrie and Eleanor the worst and they mostly sat and stared at nothing while drinking their coffee and Liam’s gloating did not help their grim mood at all. Niall didn’t eat just as much as he used to, but other than that there was no bigger problem with him. 

Himself and Louis who sat opposite each other played footsie under the table and exchanged small smiles. That was until Louis’ father came to destroy what Harry had planned to be a calm, lovely day with Louis. 

”Louis, son.” King Mark had walked up to their table and they all winced and looked up at the person which had disturbed their quiet breakfast. 

”Yes dad?”

”We need to get back to London quite quickly today. I need to be at a important meeting this evening. They called me an hour ago, something about politics that can’t handle their business. As usual.” He said with a huff. 

Harry felt his heart sink and Louis looked up at his father with big eyes. 

”Leave today? But I thought...” 

”I know. We planned to leave tomorrow but this is an critical state and that means that it’s totally necessary for us to go back to London.” Mark had some sort of compassion his eyes when he told his son this, but also the look on his face that clearly showed that it was no point to argue. 

Louis nodded stiffly. ”Okay. I understand.” 

”I would suggest that you start packing up your bags and your belongings as soon as possible. We’re leaving 15.30.” 

Louis looked at the watch sitting on his wrist and gaped. ”That’s just an hour and a half until then!” 

Mark nodded. ”I’m sorry this came so quickly. But your sisters will be delighted to see you again.” He gave Louis a compassionated smile and a polite nod Louis’ friends (including Harry himself) before walking off and leaving Louis staring after him. 

Harry looked down at his plate. It was stupid of him to be so disappointed. He knew that this wouldn’t last forever. But at least he thought that him and Louis would have another day together here before they went their separate ways. Would they ever meet again? Probably. But who knew how long it could take before an event like this appeared again? Maybe Louis had forgot all about him when that time came around. 

He looked up when he saw that Louis got up from his seat. He tried to give Louis a smile to show that he was okay, but it became an ugly grimace instead and he gave up.

”Harry, come with me to my room please?” Louis asked with a soft voice. His expression didn’t reveal anything about what was going on in his head, probably from years of media training. 

The others watched as Harry stood up and followed Louis out of the dining hall. 

They were quiet as they walked, and Harry feared that Louis would break up with him. But there wasn’t really anything to break up with. They were not a couple. They had just kissed and well, snogged at the party yesterday. Harry would lie if he said that he didn’t have feelings for the prince. Feelings that were stronger than just ‘celebrity crush giddiness’. And yes, maybe he had thought for a minute that Louis perhaps felt the same for him. Which was very stupid of him and he regretted now that he ever got his hopes up because that would make it harder to handle the rejection. 

They got to Louis’ room and Louis opened the door and let them in. 

The prince walked into the room but Harry stayed just a few meters from the door so that if he wanted he could just turn around and flee. 

He watched as Louis got out his two bags and opened them. Then it seemed to hit Louis that Harry wasn’t next to him anymore and he looked up and spotted Harry at the door.

He looked at him for a moment before he stood up straight and opened his arms. ”C’mere” 

Harry hesitated for a few seconds before he quickly walked up to Louis and right into Louis’ warm embrace. 

Even if he was taller than Louis, and bigger in general, he felt so small right now. He burrowed his face in Louis’ soft hair and breathed in the smell of the prince. That was his new favourite smell. A mix of cologne and Louis’ own smell. 

”You know that I don’t wanna leave.” Louis said into his neck.

”I don’t want you to leave.” He tightened his grip on the older boy, like it would make him stay, or slow down time or make this moment freeze forever. But unfortunately it did not work that way.

”I know.” 

They stood there, hugging each other, for several long minutes before Louis broke the silence. 

”But we’ll see each other soon right? I mean if you want to of course.” His usually steady voice, filled with confidence, had become a little uncertain. Like he was the one who was scared to lose this. Whatever this was. 

Harry sucked in a quick breath when he finally understood what Louis was saying. Louis wanted to see him again? Louis wanted them to keep contact?

”Of course I want to! So you mean...you want....do you want to see me again?” 

Louis took a step back and looked up at him with a big smile. ”That was the stupidest question I ever heard.” 

\-----------

Louis’ pov:

Two servants came and picked up his luggage very much like when they came here six days ago. He checked the room one last time so he hadn’t forgot anything, before walking over to Harry who waited by the door. He had an amused smile on his lips as he looked at the two man carrying out Louis’ two, quite large, bags.

”What are you laughing at?” He asked while checking his pockets for his phone and the key to the room. 

Harry’s smile grew bigger. ”You were suppose to be away a week Louis. A week! And you have two jammed packed big bags with you.” 

”A man has his needs.” Louis proclaimed. ”And mine includes having several outfits to choose from.” He looked up at the silly giant with curly hair, that tried to contain his laughter, and tried to scowl at him but failed miserably and was left just staring fondly at Harry. 

”Well if you say so.” Harry said with a twinkle in his eyes. 

Louis looked at his watch and realised that he needed to be at the car in a few minutes or his dad wouldn’t be particularly happy. He took Harry’s hand and took a few steps closer to the boy.

”Okay, you have my number now so text me or call me or you know whatever. Or I’ll text you or call you and...yea you know. I need to be out by the car in like two minutes but we’ll stay in touch yeah?” 

Harry laid his arms around Louis’ waist and pulled him closer and Louis rested his head against Harry’s shoulder. 

”I’m gonna miss you.” He said. 

Harry’s fingers wandered up and down his spine and his lips kissed his hair. ”I’m gonna miss you too.” He breathed out. 

Louis looked up at Harry and laid his arms around Harry’s neck. Then they both started moving towards each other until their lips met. It was a slow soft kiss. A kiss Louis never wanted to end. But after a while they drew apart and Louis sighed. 

”I guess I have to leave now.” 

Harry nodded a bit absent and they both walked out the door and Louis locked it and then they slowly walked down the corridor and down the stairs. 

They met the others in ‘the gang’ in the entrance hall and they hugged and said goodbye. 

”See you soon man.” Zayn said and gave him an one armed hug. ”I’m not gonna let this summer end without you coming down to our summerhouse.” 

”You can expect me to be there soon. And I guess we will meet in London as usual?”

”Of course. Just wait until the renovation is completed in mine and Perrie’s new apartment. Then we’ll have a awesome housewarming!”

”Sounds great!” 

Louis gave Perrie, Eleanor and Liam goodbye hugs too and then he got tackled by Niall. 

”Bye Lou! I’ll show up at the palace as soon as possible!” 

Louis laughed and hugged his irish friend back. ”Of course you will.” 

Then he turned to Harry and gave him a hug too. It might have lasted a little bit longer than the others had but Louis didn’t think that anyone noticed. 

”See you around soon.” He whispered to Harry before taking a step back and waved at all the other guests that had gathered to say goodbye to them. 

His aunt waited outside on the big stone staircase together with Philip, the servant that had greeted them when they first got here. 

”I can take your key sir Louis.” Philip said and Louis dug up the key in his pocket and gave it to the short man. ”It’s been a pleasure to meet you your majesty.” Philip bowed down and then disappeared behind the big wooden front door of the castle before Louis had time to say anything back. Instead he turned to his aunt.

”It has been a great week aunt Hilda. Congratulations once again.” 

”It has been my pleasure!” Aunt Hilda said loudly and caught him in a tight embrace that almost made him choke. He put on a big, bright, fake smile as he said goodbye to his aunt and then he walked down the stairs and met up with his parents that waited by the car. 

”Hello sweetheart.” His mother said and stroke his arm. 

”Hi mom.” He gave her a hug. 

His father gave him a pet on the back. ”You ready to go home son?” 

Louis nodded and their chauffeur opened the door to their black Audi and they stepped in one by one. When Louis closed the door behind him and looked out of the tinted window he saw his friends standing at the top of the stairs and watched as the car started to move and drive away. He saw Harry standing there next to Liam and Eleanor, and he sat and just watched Harry until they drove out through the big gates and he couldn’t see him any more. 

He didn’t know when he would see Harry again, but it would be soon. If he got his way. And not to be like that, but he usually did.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a million of reasons why this is late. I'M SO SORRY! Never write a fanfic and study for your driving license test at the same time. And don't go to school. Especially not the senior year. 
> 
> However! I'm happy that you have liked it this far! I live for the comments! So keep commenting! 
> 
> Happy reading!

Louis pov: 

They were halfway back to London when Louis couldn’t contain himself any longer and sent a text to Harry.

**Louis: Having fun without me? x**

The answers came back directly, like Harry had waited for Louis to text him. A warm feeling spread through Louis and he quickly opened text.

**Harry: No :( xx**

**Louis: Aww :( Im not having much fun without you either... miss your lovely curls too much! xx**

**Harry: I should have known that you only wanted me for my curls... now I feel used ;) xx**

Louis laughed at that and his mother and father turned their heads and looked at him with curious eyes. He pointed at the phone with a foolish smile. ”Just, you know. Texting.” 

When his parents had picked up their conversation about his father’s meeting this evening, Louis shifted his attention back to his phone again.

**Louis: Well, I think we’ll figure out more ways to use you AND your curls ;) xxx**

The minutes went by and he didn’t get any answer back from Harry. Louis wondered if he maybe had crossed the line and if Harry was mad at him now? But Louis couldn’t really help his sex-related innuendos. They just came by themselves really. (Hah!) But if Louis knew Harry right, he thought that Harry wasn’t especially prude when it came to stuff like this. 

He almost jumped when his phone vibrated in his hand. He looked down at the screen and to his disappointment he found that the text wasn’t from Harry.

**Zayn: Harry just spit out his drink and his face looks like a stoplight. Care to explain?**

Louis looked blankly down at the screen for a few seconds before he barked out a loud laugh. This was gold! Pure gold! 

His parents looked over at him again but both seemed to decide that they didn’t really wanna know, so they went back to their own conversation again. 

He answered Zayn.

**Louis: I have no idea what you’re talking about. But send my best regards to him.**

Then he sent Harry another text.

**Louis: Thought you'd be the swallowing type, not the spitting one. xx**

He got an answer from Zayn after just a minute.

**Zayn: Really Lou? For some reason I don’t believe you. Harry just choked on mid air for god sake!**

Louis quietly thanked Zayn for giving him this wonderful information. He quickly sent another text to Harry.

**Louis: Choking on mid air? I can give you something else to choke on... xx**

He got a text from Zayn just a few seconds after he had seen that Harry had read the text. 

**Zayn: STOP RUINING MY CHANCES TO WIN AT FIFA! YOU CAN HAVE YOUR LITTLE DIRTY TALK SESSION LATER!**

Well that gave him a better view about what was happening at the castle. 

They were in Niall’s room, playing Fifa. And if Louis knew Zayn right, Zayn had recruited Harry to his team. But right know, Harry wasn’t really concentrating on the game. For some reason that made Louis smile like a maniac. He wished that he could see Harry’s face right now.

His phone buzzed again:

**Harry: For your information, I always swallow. And I don’t have any sort of gag reflex whatsoever. xx**

Louis face burned red. But maybe that was just fair considering what he just put Harry through. 

\-----------

Even if he already missed Harry and all his friends and wished that he could have stayed at his aunts castle for another day, he sighed with relief when they drove through the big gates to Buckingham Palace. It was good to be home. 

When he stepped in to the big entrance hall he was met with the sight of his sisters running down the stairs to greet him and Mark and Jay. 

Phoebe and Daisy were the first to reach them and they both threw themselves at him and thanks to his brotherly instinct he caught them before any of them hurt themselves. 

”Hiiii Lou!” They said in chorus and hugged him tightly. The twins could be suspiciously much like Niall sometimes. Or perhaps it was Niall that were much like the twins. Probably the latter. 

”Hello girls! How have you been? Have Grace and Iris been nice to you?” 

It was a rhetorical question really. Grace and Iris were the royal nannies and him and his sisters had been taken care of by them since as long as he could remember. They didn’t need to take care of him anymore of course, but he still loved them like his two second mommies. 

”Yes! And they took us to the zoo and we saw penguins Louis! And we baked pie!” Daisy said while Phoebe nodded excitedly. 

”Seems like I have missed out a lot then.” He said and stood up to hug Felicite. 

”How was it at aunt Hilda’s birthday then?” Lottie came up to them and he caught her in the hug too. 

He didn’t really know what to answer to that, because all he could think of really was Harry. So instead he hugged them for a bit longer to buy some time but Lottie got impatient after a couple of minutes. 

”Louis?” Lottie’s voice was muffled against his shoulder and he let go of the girls and shrugged. 

”It was good. But you know how aunt Hilda is.” He shrugged again. 

Lottie laughed and nodded understandingly. ”Yeah I know.” It sounded like she was about to say something more but she got interrupted by Mark who tickled her in the sides and she shrieked with laughter. 

After a cosy, family group hug they walked up the two-headed staircase and further into the palace that were their home. 

The twins kept babbling on about the zoo and Lottie were telling Mark and Jay a story about the birthday party that she had attended this week. Himself and Felicite made the after-troop and they small talked about a little bit of everything when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. 

He dug up his phone from his pocket maybe a little bit too eagerly because Felicite gave him an odd look. ”A bit excited, are we? Who are you texting?” 

”That’s non of your business Fiz.” He said and opened the text from Harry.

**Harry: Dinner will be no fun without you :( xx**

A big smile spread on Louis’ face and he had to fight the urge to clutch at his heart. He was just about to answer Harry when Felicite tried to snatch his phone away from him. 

”You are smiling like a lovesick teenage girl! Com’n, who are texting?” He held his phone high in the air (Or well, as high as he could. It worked though, she was still shorter than him.) as she once again tried to snatch it. 

”No one special. Just, you know, someone. Okay? And you are the teenage girl here, not me.” He said.

She stopped making grabby hands towards the phone and smirked at him instead. ”From what I can tell from your face, it is someone VERY special.” 

He felt the blush creep up on his face and decided that this conversation needed to end now. 

”No it is not. And if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go to my room and unpack my bags.” 

He could hear Felicite laugh as he took a turn into another corridor. 

After a couple of minutes he reached his room and it felt like a healing when he threw himself on his bed with a loud sigh. He laid still there for a minute with his face pressed into the mattress and just enjoyed being home and laying in his own bed. Then he remembered Harry’s text and he leaned up on his elbows and pulled his phone out of his pocket.

**Louis: We didn’t even sit at the same table Harold xx**

**Harry: No... but you were pretty to look at :( xx**

Lord in heaven! Why was Harry like this? With just a few simple words he could turn Louis into a melting mess on the floor. And Harry wasn’t even here! 

**Louis: If you want something pretty to look at, just bring a mirror with you ;) xxx**

**Harry: I have a feeling that Zayn will steal it... xx**

Louis laughed hard at that. Harry had already caught on some of the traits of the people in their little circle of friends. And he had already a place of his own i that group. He, in some ways, completed them. Like he was the missing piece in a puzzle that finally had been found under the sofa or something. 

He stopped his thoughts there before he got tangled up in deep thoughts about life and love and existence. He didn’t have time for that. He knew that it was dinnertime for him too in a few minutes, so he texted Harry back.

**Louis: Yeah, probably :D xx**

And then he got up to actually unpack his bags like he was meant to do from the beginning. 

\-----------

Louis left his phone in his room so he could concentrate on the dinner with his family, minus his father that were on that important meeting he had talked about, but that didn’t make things better. Because soon enough his mother mentioned Harry.

”…it was wonderful really, and the food was of course in top class or what do you say Louis? You know we hardly saw a glimpse of you except at the dinners! You have to invite Harry to come here, he was a real sweetheart.”

Louis looked down at his plate so no one would see that he blushed. Because, yeah. Harry WAS a real sweetheart and no one here knew that as well as him. ”Yes, I might do that actually.”

Daisy looked at him with curious eyes. ”Who’s Harry?” 

That made Louis blush even more. How was he able to tell them who Harry was without sounding like, as Felicite had described it so well before, ’a lovesick teenage girl’?!

”Ehm…well…I…he..well…he’s a new friend of mine.” He said finally. 

”Sir Twist have gotten engaged with a women called Anne and Harry is Anne’s son.” Jay explained to the girls. 

Lottie looked wondering at him, he could see in her eyes that she knew that something was up. He prayed to god that she wouldn’t ask anything about Harry, that would just make everything even worse.

She seemed to decide this wasn’t the time to press him for answers. ”I’m looking forward to meet Harry then.” Was all Lottie said before she took a sip of her glass of water and then started eating again.

He nodded stiffly and tried to smile as convincing as possible at his other sisters which sat scattered around the table and looked at him. He personally thought that he did a good job because no one asked any more questions about Harry. Felicite gave him a couple of odd looks though and to make everything seem as normal as possible he spent the rest of the meal nodding and agreeing with everything his mother said about the week at the castle, and everything else for that matter. 

\-----------

The clock was seventeen minutes past nine when he heard a soft knock on his door. He put down the lock of his laptop that were placed in his lap and sat up a bit straighter in the bed. ”Come in?”

The door opened and Lottie and Felicite walked in. Lottie closed the door behind them and then they both walked up to the bed and sat down on the bedside. 

”Hello girls!” He said and smiled at them. They where suspiciously quiet, which was very uncommon. He frowned. ”What’s up?”

Felicite threw a glance at her sister before she said: ”We couldn’t help but notice that you were a bit, eh…tense at dinner and we just..” 

”We know that somethings happened at the castle.” Lottie said and looked Louis straight in the eye. 

Well, fuck. 

”What do you mean?” He looked back at Lottie with eyes that hopefully sent the message that nothing was up and that if something was up, it was none of their business. 

”We’re not stupid Louis. Ever since you came back you’ve been acting all weird and you don’t want to talk about what YOU did at the castle and you’re texting with a someone that you refuse to tell who it is…”

”You told her?!” Louis said in a high-pitched tone and stared at Felicite. 

”Yes.” She said calmly and then shrugged. His sisters were terrible. Why did he love them so much?

He sighed. He knew that he couldn’t get out of this. That it was a battle he couldn’t win. But maybe, he could delay it until he could explain it properly. Because, really. Everything was a bit fuzzy for him too.

”Okay, listen girls. I’m gonna tell you everything. I promise. But not today, and not tomorrow either. I need to think things through a bit okay?” 

Lottie gingerly placed her hand on his arm. ”Is everything alright Lou? It’s nothing serious is it?” 

Fizzy gave him an anxious look too. ”We just wanted you to know that you can tell us anything you know. We don’t want you to feel forced to tell us. But we would really appreciate it. We care about you, you know.” 

Louis smiled at his two sisters. He did know why he loved them. This was the exact reason why he loved them. 

”It’s okay, no harm done. But as I said, you need to wait a while before I can tell you everything. Okay?” 

They nodded, determined to earn their brothers trust. 

”Come ’ere.” He opened his arms and caught them both in a tight sibling hug. 

Louis didn’t really want to admit it, but he was a big softie at heart and he loved to hug his sisters just as much as he loved to tease them about boys and other stuff. Little did his sisters know that soon, they would be teasing Louis about boys just as he teased them. 

When Lottie and Fiz had left the room and closed the door behind them, Louis picked up his phone and sent a quick goodnight text to Harry before he crawled under the covers. He really needed to rest if he was coming out to his sisters soon. It made him angsty. He closed his eyes, determined not to trouble his mind about that anymore tonight, and fell asleep right away. 

\-----------

Harry’s pov:

Coming home from the week at the castle were a little bit surreal actually. 

First and foremost, Harry wasn’t really accustomed to that they were living at Robin’s yet. They had lived there for almost two months now, but still it was strange when the car drove up on the the driveway and instead of seeing their little house on the little street where all the houses kind of looked the same you saw this gigantic stone-clad mansion with an entrance made of marble and a fountain in the middle of the driveway.

And he was REALLY not used to that before he even had time to step out of the car, a butler had already picked up his bags and asked: ”Should I carry this to your room, Sir?” 

He just nodded, dumbstruck, and watched as the man, he think his name is Evan but he’s not sure, quickly walked in to the house with his luggage. 

”Ah, home sweet home.” Robin put his arms over his head and stretched out his body before looking at Harry who still looked at the door that Evan (?) had disappeared behind. ”You okay there, Harry?” 

Harry snapped out of his thought about how the hell this had become his life and nodded. ”Yeah, just…yeah.” 

Robin studied him for a moment before smiling and gave him a pat on his shoulder. ”Great! No need to wait for us, I think Anne’s lost in her phone.” He peered into the car. ”You coming, dear?” 

Harry didn’t stay to hear his mothers answer. Instead he slowly walked up to the house. He stepped in and looked around the huge entrance hall. It was deserted and as he walked deeper into the house he got that tingly feeling like he was walking around alone in a complete strangers home. Even if he knew these rooms quite well now. 

Everything in the mansion was fancy and modern and looked like it would cost a fortune. In the beginning when they had moved here Harry had been terrified to touch anything because he thought it would break, but now he walked with a little more confidence even if he still sometimes felt out of place. 

He walked up two marble stairways and down a hallway and into his room that were more than the doubble size of his old and sat down on the bed, next to his bag that were carefully placed there and looked around. 

He had to admit, his room was amazing. 

The walls were white and bright and the floor was mahogany. He had a queen sized bed with velvet royal-blue covers, a big flat screen were hanging on the wall in front of his bed. A chest of drawers in wood stood right under the flatscreen and on top of it laid a brand new Xbox that Robin had bought Harry without any major reason really. 

A double door in glass on the right side of his bed led out to a balcony and he had several times wondered if it was possible to jump from the balcony and land in the pool that were placed just beneath. 

On the left side of his bed, next to the bedside table, stood a big aquarium with exotic fishes that swam around among water plants, rocks and a shipwreck. (Harry was thrilled when he walked into his room for the first time and found the big aquarium. It was still his favorite thing in his room and he had given all the fishes unisex names because he didn’t want to offend any of them.) 

The wall on the left side of his bed was adorned with a large bookshelf filled with books and photographs and next to the bookshelf was a door that led to a walk-in-closet. Even when he had moved ALL of his clothes into the walk-in-closet it hadn’t even filled half of the space in there, so it looked quite empty and sad and he felt bad for his clothes that lived in such a solitary room. 

His phone vibrated in his pocket and he almost fell off the bed in his hurry to see who had texted him. He didn't want to admit how much he wanted it to be Louis.

It wasn’t Louis though. It was Nick. 

He wasn’t disappointed. He really wasn’t. (Okay, he was.)

**Nick: Ayy you home yet? Wanna hear all about your little trip to swanky land.**

Harry smiled. 

Nick and Harry had been best friends since they were little. They had also lived next to each other for their whole life’s until two months ago when Harry and his mother moved in with Robin. 

Harry knew that Nick was a little bit jealous of Harry’s new ”jetset”-life, but he didn’t say anything about it. Because he also knew that Nick felt bad for being jealous.

**Harry: Yeah, omw to yours. See you in twenty!**

He stood up and walked out of his room. When he came downstairs he almost run straight into Robin who walked out of the kitchen talking to Debby, their chef. 

Debbie was a lady in her fifties and she and Harry had clicked quickly due to their shared passion for baking and cooking. Debbie was Harry’s favorite among the staff, she always smelled like cookies and she had wrinkles in her face from a life full of laughter and her eyes always shined with youth and life. Debbie herself had grown quite fond of him too and she treated him like he was her nephew. 

”…it was truly amazing, I’ll make sure you get the recipe.” He smiled when he saw Harry. ”Ah, Harry. I was just telling Debbie about all the fantastic food we have gotten this week. Wasn’t it just splendid?” 

Harry nodded. ”Yeah, it was great.” He leaned forward to give Debbie a hug. ”Hi Debs. It’s good to see you again.” 

Debbie hugged him back tightly ”It’s good to have you home dear.” 

He let go and started walking towards the door. ”I’m going to Nick’s!” He called over his shoulder.

Once he was out, he walked into the garage, next to the big mansion, that hosted all of Robin’s cars. And now also, Harry’s. 

Harry could still not believe that Robin had bought him a car. It was a black Porsche in a sporty model, that purred deliciously when you put your foot on the gas. Nick had almost choked when Harry had driven up on their driveway with that car and they had spent that afternoon just driving around in the neighborhood and laughed at peoples reactions when they had seen the car. 

”We are gonna get so much dick with this car!” Nick had said with an almost lyrical expression on his face. Harry had just rolled his eyes but had been much more attentive to look after cute boys and see how they reacted after that. 

Now, he opened the door and stepped in to the car and five minutes later he whizzed down the highway. 

\-----------

”Harry! I thought I felt the smell of money!” 

Nick stepped away from the door so Harry could come in.

”Ha.ha. Very funny. Hello on you too.” Harry gave Nick a light punch on the bicep and kicked off his shoes. 

It felt slightly nostalgic to be back in Nick’s house. It reminded him so much of his old home and he could see a younger version of himself running up the stairs with Nick by his side, laughing at some prank they had pulled or a joke they had heard at school. 

”Can I offer you something? Tea, coffee, vodka?” Nick now asked and wiggled his eyebrows as they walked up the stairs and into Nick’s room. 

”Nah, I’m good.” Harry flopped down on Nick’s bed and winked at his friend that sat down next to him. 

Nick laughed and shook his head. ”So, go on. I know you’re bursting to tell me about the magnificent week you’ve had.” 

Harry raised his brows. ”Why do you think that? Maybe I was wondering how you have been? Though about that, huh?” 

”Seriously H?” Nick waved his hand around in the air. ”Just the normal. Been out at some clubs, met some boys, fucked some boys. Nothing out of the ordinary really.” 

”You’re disgusting.”

”I’m charming. So, tell me now. How much lobster did you eat?” 

Harry furrowed his eyebrows. ”Is that a metaphor for something else? Because if it is, then none.” 

Nick snorted. ”You think everything is about sex huh, H? No I was wondering how it have been…” He stopped a second and then said ”…and how much lobster you have eaten.” 

Harry stretched out on the bed before he began talking, to think things over a bit. 

It was probably a bad idea to tell Nick about that he found out Louis’ true sexuality, because Nick wasn’t really good with secrets. But that meant that he neither couldn’t tell him about the kiss and about what happened between them at the party. 

But he had earned Louis’ trust and he wasn’t just gonna throw that away, so he started telling Nick about the week. But left out the parts where he and Louis had gotten a bit…intimate.

”Well. It was great actually. The place was beautiful and the food was amazing, yes I ate lobster you dick, and people weren’t as snobbish as you could think, no they were not don’t intrude, and I made a couple new friends.” 

Nick gave him a doubting look. ”You made new friends? Weren’t people like, a hundred years old?” 

Harry hadn’t mentioned to Nick that Louis would be there. For some reason he had wanted to keep that to himself at the time. So Nick had the idea that it had just been Harry and a lot of old people. 

”No, there….there was some people my age there too.”

”Like who? Do they have names?”

Harry hesitated. 

How do you even tell your best friend that you have met the Prince of England? The Prince of England that you also had a crush on for years that your best friend totally knows about? 

”Yes. They have names.”

”And their names are…?”

He sighed. This didn’t lead anywhere. The best thing was probably just to say it.

”Niall, Liam, Eleanor, Zayn, Perrie and…and Louis.” 

The name had apparently no impression on Nick who just nodded. ”Well that’s a nice set of names. Were any of the boys hot then?” 

Harry fidgeted nervously where he sat with his legs crossed on the bed. ”Yes. Louis was rather stunning….but you already know that.” 

Nick gave him a surprised look. ”I what? How could I know? I haven’t even seen the lad!” 

”Yes you have.” 

Nick shook his head. ”You’re crazy Harry. How the heck is it possible that I have seen him?” 

”Because….because he’s the Prince of England.” 

”HE’S THE WHAT?!” 

Harry didn’t even have time to answer before Nick almost threw himself at him. 

”You mean that you have met Louis Tomlinson?! Prince charming Louis Tomlinson?! ” He stopped shouting and just stared at Harry for a couple of seconds before he started laughing instead. It was kind of creepy actually.

”You’re just messing with me aren’t you? Trying to fool me?” He continued laughing.

Harry straightened up. ”No I’m not!” He said in a huffy voice. 

”Yes you are! If you had met Louis Tomlinson for real you would have sent me a hysterical text where you totally freaked out.” 

And he was right. In other circumstances, Harry _would_ have sent a text where he totally freaked out. 

”I had no time! And everything went so fast! We met and then it was dinner and the next thing I know I was playing tennis with him and he fell and then we talked about tattoos and then he introduced me to all his friends and we rode horses and had a picnic and flied in a fucking air-balloon and we had a party and I literally had no time!” He rambled on. 

”You’re just making up.” It seemed like Nick refused to believe him, so instead he picked up his phone. 

”I have proof!” He waved the phone in front of Nick’s face before he unlocked it and opened up his camera roll. ”Here look!” 

Sometime during the party, Niall had stolen his phone and taken a hell lot of pictures. On the day after Harry had been horrified to find them, because he looked like an idiot in most of the pictures. But now he really appreciated that Niall had taken those highly embarrassing photos. 

He clicked on the first picture from the party (A selfie of Niall) and let Nick scroll through the pictures by himself. 

There were at least ten drunken selfies of Niall before the motive changed to Perrie and Zayn cuddling on the sofa. And then there was a few pictures of Eleanor dancing on the table and one where she almost fell off the table. There was a selfie of Niall and Liam, Liam pointed right at the camera and smiled brightly while Niall made some weird grimace. Then Niall had taken a few pictures of Liam building up the shot pyramid (They had found out that Liam, of all people, was the culprit for that.) and then some drunken pictures at nothing before they reached the horrible pictures of Harry trying to breakdance which Nick laughed about for a century before he finally scrolled past them. And came to the pictures of Louis. Louis looked so incredibly cute! He stood on top of the bed with his arms spread wide and he smiled hugely right at the camera. 

”Told you.” Harry said smugly. 

Nick just stared at the screen. So Harry started scrolling for him instead.

There were some pictures of general chaos before they came to the pictures Harry liked the most of all pictures that were taken that night. It was the pictures of himself and Louis. 

Harry had joined Louis on the bed and they did the titanic pose with Harry’s hands on Louis hips and Louis’ arms still spread wide apart. Then they started dancing, they had tried to dance as graciously as they had done the nigh before but they ended up just spinning around instead. 

There were some pictures of just the dark wooden floor before the last picture which were a selfie of Louis and Harry. 

They both look enormously happy and if you looked closely you could see that they were hugging. Their cheeks were flushed and their hair was ruffled from different kind of activities and their eyes were a bit glossy and all Harry could describe this picture as, was breathtaking. They looked breathtaking together. 

”Wow.” Nick said and it actually sounded like he’d got the breath knocked out of him. ”You really met the Prince of England.” 

Harry nodded and kept looking at the screen were his and Louis bright smiles almost blinded him. 

”You’re living the dream you know.” Nick said after some long quiet minutes. ”One day your living at some calm, quiet street where the most exciting thing you can do is counting how many cats you can see in an hour…” Harry laughed. They had actually done that a few times. ”…and the next you are living in this huge mansion, driving around in a car worth millions and partying with the Prince of England.” He sounded almost a bit plaintive and Harry felt a bit bad, even if he couldn’t help how his life had turned out. 

He threw an arm over Nick’s shoulder. ”But I’m not leaving you, you’re my best friend. You wont get rid of me that easily.” 

Nick laughed and shook his head. ”You’re stupid.” 

Harry smiled. ”I’m charming.” 

The next two hours they just spent playing video games and talking about nothing. It felt like they purposely didn’t touch the subject of Louis and the castle. 

It wasn’t until Harry was leaving, that they said something actually important.

”Oh by the way, I forgot to tell you!” Harry was tying his shoes and looked up at Nick that had an exciting look on his face.

”What?” Harry stood up.

”I’m moving! I have finally bought my own place!” 

Harry’s eyes widened and a grin spread on his face. ”Are you serious? For real? That’s fucking amazing!” He caught Nick in a hug. 

”Yeah. And I can actually afford it thanks to the money from the radio station.”

Nick had got a job at the local radio station three months ago and had been promoted almost immediately. His boss thought he was a natural and now he had his own show airing every Wednesday and Friday. 

”That’s awesome!” Harry said and let go of his friend. He was really excited for Nick. He had dreamt about having a own place for so long now and if Harry should be honest, it was probably the best for everyone involved. Nick didn’t really care if his parents were home or not when he brought back guys to, well, have a little fun. And that happened more often than not.

Nick nodded. ”Yeah. Actually…I would need some help with packing my stuff and such…would you…?” 

”You know it.” 

\-----------

When Harry came home and stepped into the entrance hall he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. 

**Nick: Need to see u soon again. You didn’t even tell me anything about prince charming! Come pack stuff with me tmrw?**

Harry smiled to himself. Now when the shock had subsided, Nick of course wanted to know everything. 

He sent a quick text back.

**Harry: Haha sure. See you tomorrow! x**

And then he lumbered further into the house, following the smell of newly-cooked food. 

\-----------

Later that evening when he laid in bed another text dropped in. And to his excitement it was from Louis. With quick motions he opened the text and read the words that Louis had written especially for him.

**Louis: Sorry that I haven’t written until now! My day has been full with attention-seeking sisters and a certain Irish lad that had decided that he already missed me… Did you come home safely? Haven’t heard a word from you since yesterday so I’m a bit worried. Answer as soon as possible please? Miss you! xx**

Harry read through the text again. And again. And again. 

Louis wanted to know that he was safe!? Louis wanted to hear from him!? Louis was worried for him?! Louis missed him!?

Harry had wanted to write to Louis for the whole day but hadn’t been sure if Louis was busy. Because he definitely didn’t want to bother Louis or disturb him in the middle of a important meeting or something. 

He read through the words just one more time. He couldn’t really believe that Louis cared so much about him!

**Harry: Hiiiiiiii Lou! Yes I came home in one piece luckily enough! I would have written to you, but I wasn’t sure if you were busy…? I hope you and your sisters (and Niall!) are alright. Miss you too! xx**

He pressed send and then he waited. He hoped that what he’d written didn’t sound stupid. 

The answer came back quick and Harry envisioned Louis laying in his own bed in London, his face lit up by the screen of his phone. Perhaps he had a small smile on his lips just like Harry.

**Louis: I’m never too busy for you Harry xx**

The butterflies made loops in Harry’s stomach. 

**Harry: It means a lot, Louis. Really xx**

After that they said goodnight, and Harry cuddled himself under the covers. A small (large) part of him wished that he could have someone (Louis) laying beside him, or even better, cuddling with him. His mind wandered away to London and Buckingham Palace and to featherlight cinnamon hair before he slowly drifted away.

\-----------

The next the day when Harry came home from Nick’s, his mind felt like goo. 

Nick had asked possibly every single question there was to ask in the universe. And more. And it didn’t make anything better that Harry was stupid enough to answer all of them. Like: ’Could you think of anything else than what it would feel like being fucked by him?’. (Answer: ’I can, unlike somebody I know, think of other things than sex.’ ’You totally thought about it a little though!’ ’…Maybe.’) 

And it did certainly not make anything better that Harry described everything about Louis a little too much into detail or that he lost track of the question. (’His eyes were amazing, like the sea, the sea at some tropical beach, but when we were up in the air-balloon his eyes were like the sky! Even bluer than the sky! And even more beautiful…’ ’Jesus Christ.’) 

Nick had seemed a bit worried when Harry were about to leave. 

”What’s on your mind?” Harry had asked and leant against the doorframe. 

Nick had just shaken his head and then looked Harry straight in the eye. ”You seem like…like you’re in love with him almost. And I just don’t want you to get your heart broken or you to get disappointed or something, right? But. He’s the Prince of England. He’s not gay H.” He had given Harry a sympathetic look and laid his hand on Harry’s arm. 

Harry had blinked a few times. ”No, of course not. I know.” And then he had fought to keep his smile off his face because, Nick was wrong. 

Now when he walked into the kitchen to snatch an apple and some grapes and maybe have a conversation about cooking with Debbie his eyes met the sight of Robin and his mom sitting at the kitchen table drinking tea and going through the mail.

”Hello.” He said and started digging in the fruit bowl for the perfect apple. 

”Welcome home darling, did you have fun at Nick’s?” Anne asked and gave him a warm smile. 

”Yeah, he had quite a bit of questions about Louis and the castle though.” Harry fished up a green apple and studied it before giving giving an approving nod and took a bite. 

Anne laughed. ”That’s easy to understand.” 

Robin looked up from the pile of letters that he were going through. ”You’ve got mail Harry!” 

Harry raised his eyebrows. ”I have?” He never got mail. Especially not now when they had moved. 

”Yes here. A rather fancy envelope, I have to say.” He held out the letter. 

The envelope was really rather fancy as Robin had described it. Half of it was black and half of it was white. It almost looked like someone had taken it and dipped it in black paint. _’To Mr Harry Edward Styles’_ was printed in white neat italic on the black part of the envelope. 

Harry gave Robin a questioning look before he carefully opened it. 

In the envelope, there was a fold-up card in black, matte, hard paper. It proved to be an Invitation. An text in the same white, neat italic was printed inside the card: 

_You are now invited to Mr Zayn Malik and Miss Perrie Edward’s housewarming. You’re expected August 6, at 19.30. You may bring gifts. No plus-one’s._

_The theme is Black and White._

_Dresscode: Black and White._

The adress was printed in the bottom right corner of the card. 

Harry’s brows lifted even higher as he read through the invitation again. 

It was all very…formal. 

But he had to admit. It fitted Zayn and Perrie perfectly. 

’You may bring gifts. No plus-one’s’. Harry suppressed a laugh. It was VERY formal. On the edge to ridiculous. 

He checked the backside of the card so he wouldn’t miss any important information and to his surprise he found a white note taped there. 

_Harry! We would like you to arrive the night before the party for some drinks and just chill-out time. The whole gang is coming! Don’t worry about getting there, I’ll send a car. Looking forward to see you again! Sincerily, Zayn_

The note sounded much more friendly than the invitation and unlike inside the card, where the text were printed in neat italic, this note was scrabbled with black ballpoint. But the writing were still very neat and proper. 

”I have been invited to Zayn’s housewarming.” He said cheerfully and looked up from the card. 

”Really?” Robin said without looking up from the letter he was reading. ”’He’s a good kid, or man, Zayn. Known for his parties. I bet it will be splendid.” 

His mother didn’t say anything, but when he caught her eye she winked and smiled knowingly. She knew that Louis would be there. And she knew that Harry were almost bursting with giddiness over that.

Harry smiled to himself as he looked down on the envelope. In just one week he would see Louis again. He could not wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, please give me comments and feedback! I love that and I always try to answer! You can ask questions or give me feedback or just talk to me at my tumblr too: www.fridaannamaria.tumblr.com 
> 
> HUGS AND KISSES TO YOU ALL! *hides under invisibility cloak*


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't go to school if you wanna write fanfiction. School is an evil place for fanfiction writers I tell you! 
> 
> I'm so sorry that this is so fucking late. Senior year is killing me. 
> 
> So much love to those who've stayed though! 
> 
> I'm not gonna keep you waiting, I'll write more stuff in the notes at the end. 
> 
> Happy reading!

Harry’s pov:

The days until the housewarming crept forward almost painfully slowly. 

Harry tried to busy himself with numerous different things to make the pointers of the clock move faster. But it hardly made any difference anyway. It was impossible to stop thinking about that he would see Louis again soon. And his other new friends. Of course. 

He spent much time in the kitchen with Debbie, helping her with dinner or baking with her just for the fun of it. But it always ended up with him talking about Louis, and Debbie laughing and giving him a dozen amused looks. 

He also helped Nick move into his new apartment as he promised. It was a small, but cosy, two-roomer that Harry fell slightly in love with and would have loved to decorate, but he did of course not mention that to Nick. 

He did accompany Nick to a couple of second-hand shops though, where he helped him to pick out some furniture and other stuff to the apartment because seriously. Nick had no sense of interior style. At all. 

On wednesday, three days before the housewarming, he visited Tom at the tattoo studio. He had done almost all of Harry’s tattoos and in the bargain they had become close friends. 

Tom looked up from the sketch he was working on when the bell above the door rang and announced Harry’s arrival. A big grin spread on Tom’s face when his eyes locked on Harry.

”Lou?” He called over his shoulder and stood up from his chair. ”We have a visitor!” 

Lou, Tom’s wife, stuck her head out through the door that led to the back room. ”Harry!” She looked equally as happy as her husband. ”Lux, Harry’s here!” 

Harry could hear the sound of small feet that clattered against the floor and out through the door to the back room rushed a short creature with blonde hair. 

”Uncle Harry!” The little girl knocked into his legs and looked up at him with a big toothy grin. 

”Hello there, beautiful.” Harry said and lifted her up. She put her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. 

”Missed you.” Lux leaned back in his arms so she could give him a pouty face. 

”I’ve missed you too princess.” 

Princess. Prince. Louis. 

Okay, he was pathetic. 

”You know I’m here waiting for my hug.” Lou said and leaned against the counter, she gave him a pout too and for a moment she looked exactly like her three year old daughter.

He put Lux down on the floor again. ”I guess I have to give you a hug too.” He faked a sigh before he winked at her and gave her a big hug. 

”How’s it going Harry? Haven’t seen you in two weeks or summat.” Tom said and closed his sketch block so he could focus on Harry. 

”Ehm, it’s going well. I was away last week so I hadn’t really a chance to drop by.” He shrugged.

”Oh where did you go? Was it a vacation or something?” Lou asked.

He once again had a hard time telling where he had been and what he had done. He thought that even if you twisted and turned the words it still sounded like he was boasting and bragging. 

”I wouldn’t really call it vacation…it, it was…Robin took us with him to celebrate an old family friend of his.” He said finally. Even if he were almost bursting with how much he wanted to tell them everything, he was gonna handle this in a classy way. Like Louis would. Louis… 

He really needed to get a hold of himself.

Lou lit up. ”Really? Was it something poshy then?” 

Harry shook his head. ”You wouldn’t believe me.” He sat down in one of the couches where people usually sat and waited for getting their tattoo done. Like Harry himself had done so many times before. 

Lux immediately climbed up in his lap and made herself comfortable.

”Really? Try me.” Lou challenged. 

That was all Harry really needed to hear to start an almost hysterical rambling. 

”It was more than posh! We got driven to an beautiful castle in the countryside and I got this amazing room all to myself and then we were suppose to mingle and meet all the other guests and there were like two hundred or something and then we met the king and queen and…”

”Wait, did you just say that you met the king and the queen?” Tom raised his eyebrows. 

Harry nodded. ”Yes. And Prince Louis.” 

Lux looked up at him with big eyes. ”Did you meet the prince?” 

Harry smiled down at her. ”Yes love. You should’ve seen him. He was so pretty.” 

Wow, he really needed to tone it down a bit. This was getting ridiculous. 

”You were right Harry.” Lou said and shook her head. ”Now I actually don’t believe you.” 

So he had to go through the exact same procedure as with Nick to get them to believe him. Show them the pictures, tell them the story and then he had to answer almost the same questions as Nick had asked him. Except that their questions were a little more child friendly, as to say. 

”So you’re gonna attend the same party as the prince this weekend?” Tom said for the third time. 

Harry nodded. It was a bit hard for him himself to grasp that he actually _would_ attend the same party as Louis, so he understood his friends doubting looks. 

Lou sighed longingly. ”I’m so jealous of you. Say hi to the prince from me.” 

Harry laughed. ”I will.” 

”So what will you bring to the party?” Tom asked.

Harry frowned. ”What do you mean?”

Tom lifted Lux, that had climbed off Harry’s knee to play with the carpet instead, up in his knee. ”’You may bring gifts’.” He quoted. ”That’s like begging for a gift. So what are you gonna buy them?” 

Harry had actually not thought about that. He thought that you could bring gifts if you wanted but that it wasn’t an requirement. Now when he heard Tom say it, it sounded obvious that he was gonna bring a gift. 

”I haven’t even thought about that.” He looked up at his friends with almost desperate eyes. ”I have no idea what to buy! They’re posh and noble! What do you buy people that are posh and noble?!” 

Lou cocked her head. ”Well you better start thinking of that. I don’t know these people but it sounds like they're the kind of people that would be shocked if you didn’t bring a gift.” 

To be fair, that was probably not the case. Zayn and Perrie were really nice and would understand if Harry didn’t bring a gift. But he did absolutely not want to be the only person that didn’t bring anything. 

He stayed at the studio for a while to play with Lux and talk to Lou while Tom tattooed a middle aged woman, but he was jittery and felt so stressed about the gift thing so as soon as Tom was done, and he could give him his farewell, he left to go gift hunting. 

It was a disaster. He drove around the small town for almost two hours searching for the perfect gift, he scanned every store he could find but found nothing. With a feel of defeat he returned to Robin’s mansion. Or well, their mansion. 

Still weird. 

He dragged his feet behind him as he walked into the kitchen, that smelled like freshly baked cinnamon buns, and slumped into one of the kitchen chairs. 

Louis would probably think that he was really rude because he didn’t bring any gift to his friends housewarming and then he’d never want to talk to Harry again. 

Okay that was a bit dramatic, but maybe that was the way it worked in the finer circles? He had really no idea about that. He was new to this kind of thing. The nicest housewarming he’d been to was the one where they served a homemade buffet and a couple of the guest brought their instruments and improvised a performance. He had a feeling that Zayn’s housewarming would be a bit different. And a bit more… classy.

He sighed loudly. 

”How are you doing love? You look absolutely distressed!” Debbie put a hand on his back and sat down in the chair next to his. 

He looked up at Debbie. ”You know the invitation I showed you? To Zayn Malik’s housewarming? It said that you could bring gifts, but I have no idea what I should buy! I have searched through every store in town but I didn’t find a thing!” 

Debbie nodded seriously and looked like she was thinking and the kitchen was quiet for a few minutes. Then, suddenly, a grin started spreading on her lips. ”There was a theme on the festivity, right?”

Harry nodded. ”Yeah, Black and White.” 

Debbie smiled even bigger. ”Well why don’t you follow the theme? What do you know that’s black and white?” 

Harry thought about that for a while. ”Ehm…Chess, old movies…eh…zebras?” 

Even if a zebra would have been quite a party increaser he thought that nothing of the things he had said would work as a gift to the party. 

Debbie snickered and shook her head. ”What about a nice box with white and dark chocolate?”

He considered that for a while. Everybody likes chocolate, so why not?

He nodded. ”Chocolate it is.”

\-----------

The rest of the week floated by without any other major problems. 

Louis and him texted every day and they even spoke on the phone once. Harry was shy and nervous and made everything awkward but Louis had just laughed and told him that he was cute. 

Yes.

Louis Tomlinson, the Prince of Britain, told him on the phone that he was cute.

He needed to take a breather every time he thought about it. 

It wasn't until Thursday, the day before he was expected at Zayn’s, that he encountered something worth panicking over. 

He stood in his walk-in closet, just staring at the clothes on the hangers and shelves. He had no idea what he was suppose to wear. 

In the invitation it had been made clear that he was suppose to wear something black and white, but Harry still had no idea how formal the event was. Was he suppose to wear a suit and tie? Ripped jeans and a t-shirt? A button up and suit pants? He was so confused. 

He fingered on his black suit. The invitation had sounded so formal. But on the other hand, Zayn had said that it would be a real party… 

”Gah!” He went to knock his head against the wall a couple of times. He was so frustrated. 

Just as he was to smash his head against the wall, Robin walked in.

”Harry I couldn’t help hearing your shout so I just went to che- what are you doing?” 

Harry stood with his hand pressed against the wall and with his back bent a little forward, just to get as much as possible out of smashing in some idea of what to wear in his head.

”Ehm- I, eh… Nothing.” He let go of the wall and stood up straight again. 

”Okay.” Robin gave him a questioning look but seemed to decide to let it go. Instead he smiled and sat down in the white sofa in the middle of the room (Harry had no idea why a sofa was necessary in a closet, but Robin seemed to think that it was a splendid idea so he didn’t question it.) ”Why did you howl then?” 

Harry sighed. ”I don’t know what to wear to the housewarming.” 

Robin hummed and nodded understanding. ”Black and white theme, wasn't it?”

”Yeah. But, like, I’m not really sure how formal I should dress, you know?” 

Robin nodded again and looked around the room at Harry’s clothes before turning his head back to Harry. ”Would you like to know what I think?”

Harry nodded.

”I think you should go for a simple but classic look.” Robin stood up and walked over to one of the clothes rails and picked out a black blazer. ”Like this, and black jeans and a white t-shirt. If the party is very formal it will work and if it isn’t formal at all, you can just take off the blazer.” He held out the blazer for Harry to take. ”What do you think?”

Harry looked at the blazer for two seconds before accepting it and then shot Robin a small smile. ”I think it’s great. Honestly, thank you.” 

Robin smiled back. ”No problem, son. And don’t be nervous for the party, Zayn is a nice guy. He will show you a good time. And the same can be said about Louis. You’ll see, it’s gonna be just fine.” 

At the mention of Louis’ name Harry’s smile grew a bit bigger. ”Thank’s Robin.”

\-----------

”We have arrived, mr Styles.” 

Harry looked up from his phone, where he had two ongoing text conversations. (One with Nick, Nick tried to give him ”helpful advice” about how to get boys into bed at parties, even if Harry hadn’t asked, and one with Louis where they discussed food they disliked. 

**Louis: Our chef has for some reason got the idea that I’m quite fond of carrots, when in reality, I can’t stand them! So each time he serves something with carrots I have to make terrible excuses for why I don’t want to eat… xx** ) 

He looked out through the window, the building they had parked outside looked more like a fancy hotel than an apartment building. 

The entrance had three steps in gray marble, lined with perfectly trimmed bushes in big, white pots. On the third step stood an older man dressed in a English-green velvet tailcoat, gray velvet suit trousers and a top hat in the same green shade as the tailcoat. The stairs led up to a huge revolving door in glass and you could see into the room, that Harry would refer to as a lobby, through the big windows that covered the wall next to the revolving door.

”Is-uh-are you sure we’re at the right place?” Harry said to the driver who looked back at him through the rearview mirror. 

The man gave him an amused look. ”Yes, I’m very sure mr Styles.” Then he climbed out of the car and went to open the door for Harry. 

Harry just stared at him for a couple of seconds before he stepped out of the car. ”Thanks.” 

His driver then proceeded to take his bag and walked up to the man in the top hat, which gave Harry no other choice than to follow him. 

”Good afternoon Nelson. Keep an eye on this one, he’s supposed to visit mr Malik, but I’m afraid that he will end up somewhere else if no one shows him where to go.” His driver gave Nelson Harry’s bag, then bowed real quick for Harry and then rushed back to the car.

”Heeeeey.” Harry said and pouted as he watched the car drive off. 

Nelson cleared his throat to get Harry’s attention. ”Should we get going then mr…?”

”Uh, Harry. Or Styles! I mean, uh, mr Harry Styles.” His cheeks got a little hot and he gave himself a mental scolding for being so weird and confusing. Nelson didn’t seem to care too much though, he just gave Harry a smile and made a sign to follow him. 

They walked into the building and Harry was met by the sight of one of the fanciest room’s he’d ever sat his foot in. Counting Hilda Tomlinson’s castle. 

The floor was is the same gray marble as the steps outside, the walls were white and the wall to his right were covered with golden elevator doors with different numbers above them. The other walls had black and white modern art hanging on them in an almost painfully symmetric manner. 

Next to the window-covered wall there were sofas in black leather with coffee tables in dark stone in front of them. Exotic plants on pillars made of glass adorned the room and a huge fountain with goldfishes swimming in it was placed in the middle of everything. 

Right in front of them stood a desk in dark stone that seemed to work as a reception. Behind the desk stood a woman dressed in a white shirt and a west in the same green color as Nelson’s tailcoat. When she saw Harry and Nelson approaching she gave them a huge smile.

”Good afternoon.” She said when they stopped in front of the desk. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a knot and she had blue, alert eyes. She looked very kind. According to her nameplate, her name was Grace.

”Ehm, good afternoon. I’m Harry Styles. I’m supposed to-”

”Ah, mr Styles!” She exclaimed loudly and made Harry jump. She gave him a apologetic smile. ”I’m sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. Mr Malik has informed me that you are expected.”

Harry just nodded. 

”Lovely to meet you. I’m Grace. I’m gonna announce your arrival to mr Malik.” She picked up a phone and pressed it against her ear. ”Mr Malik? Mr Styles have just arrived. Should I send him up to your room?” She was quiet for a few seconds while Zayn spoke. ”Yes, of course. I’ll send him right up then.” 

She put down the phone and smiled at Harry. ”Elevator number eight will take you to mr Malik’s suite.” She gestured to the elevators. 

Harry nodded but made no effort to move. He felt a bit like stain of dirt in the spotless lobby, and this little stain of dirt didn’t know if it really was a good idea coming here in the first place. 

And did she just say suite? He was way too awkward and ungraceful to live up to the standards of this place! What if Louis came to same conclusion? What if he would feel like a stain of dirt the whole evening? He didn’t know if he could handle that to be honest. 

”Mr Styles? Is everything alright?” Grace leaned forward and placed her hand on his arm. She looked up at him with worried eyes. 

”Ehm…” He took a deep breath. And then another. It would be fine. He had handled the week at the castle just fine and this couldn't be any worse, right? He exhaled. ”Yes. Yes, I’m fine. I were just-” 

”It’s alright.” She cut him off but smiled kindly up at him. ”It’s a bit too much at first, but you’ll get used to it. I promise.” She seemed to have read his thoughts somehow. Maybe this wasn’t the first time she came across an insecure newcomer. That made him feel a bit better somehow.

He nodded and smiled weakly. ”Elevator number eight? Right?”

”Yes.” She removed her hand from his arm and gave him thumbs up. 

Slowly he started moving towards the golden elevators with Nelson trailing behind him quietly. 

It was fairly simple to find elevator number eight, but he quickly realized that there were no button to press to make the doors open. He was about to turn around and ask Nelson what to do when the doors slid open with a small ’ding’. 

”The lifts can only be managed from the reception and the suite. For safety reasons.” Nelson said somewhere behind him. 

Oh. Well, that made sense. Don’t want anybody to just burst into your apartment. Eh, suite. Harry gulped and stepped into the elevator.

It was definitely one of the better lifts Harry had ridden. It was big and spacey inside, the mirrors on the wall decreasing the claustrophobic feeling. The lamps provided a mild light against the golden walls and Harry had a feeling that Zayn and Perrie had chosen the music that were softly playing in the background. The 1975 weren’t what he would call usual elevator music. 

He didn’t get any more time to think about his nervousness before the elevator stopped with a light thud. The doors opened and a shout resounded through the spacious hallway he saw outside the elevator doors. ”Irishman coming through!” 

And then he got tackled by something pale and blonde that he assumed to be Niall. 

Harry had kind of a problem staying upright and steady when he just carried himself around and now when he got tackled and tightly hugged by Niall his lack of balance didn’t help at all. He stumbled backwards and tripped over his own feet and ended up on the floor with a lap full of irishman.

Niall blinked at him for a few seconds before he threw his head back and laughed. ”Falling for me already eh, Harry? I knew I could trust me Irish charm!”

Harry couldn't help the smile that grew on his face. His doubts had already shrunken to microscopic size. 

He heard a quiet snicker and looked up to see Zayn lean against the open elevator doors. ”Niall is a bit of a physical person.” He said. Then he turned his attention to Nelson who had backed into a corned so that he wouldn't get dragged down with Harry and Niall. ”Good afternoon Nel.”

Nelson smiled at Zayn and it was clear that they knew each other quite well. ”Good afternoon mr Malik. Where should I put mr Styles' bag?”

”In the saloon. He can decide which room he wants to sleep in later.” 

Zayn said the last part with a smirk playing on his lips and Niall stifled a laugh where he still sat in Harry’s lap. 

”Heeey, what’s so funny?” Harry asked and looked back and forth between them. 

”Nothing.” Niall quickly climbed off Harry and got back up to his feet to give Nelson a friendly pat on the shoulder. ”How’s it hanging Nel?”

”Well, it's good thank you. And you, mr Horan?” Nelson looked fondly at Niall and it only occurred now to Harry that Nelson probably had met all of Zayn’s friends more than a dozen times. 

”Splendid.” Niall grinned at Nelson and then he turned around to face the other two boys. ”So, lads? Are we gonna spend the rest of the night in here? Because if we are, I at least want to get me some beers.” 

Zayn smirked. ”No, I don’t think my fiancé would like to be left alone in the saloon.”

Was Perrie alone in the saloon? That probably meant that no one else than Harry and Niall had arrived yet. And THAT meant that Louis wasn’t here. Yet. 

Okay, Harry had kind of figured that out already. If Louis had been here he’d been right here in the elevator with them. Louis would never miss an opportunity to be loud and knock people (Harry) down. 

Harry stood up and brushed some dust of his jeans. ”So we’re the only one’s here?” He asked casually. 

”Louis’ not here yet no.” Zayn grinned at Harry. Okay. Not so casually then. 

Harry decided that he was still young enough to get away with sticking his tongue out at Zayn which made Niall bark out a laugh. 

Zayn just shook his head, but a small smile tugged on his lips as he spoke. ”Mature, Styles, very Mature. Com’n now, let me show you around.” 

\-----------

Louis’ pov: 

Paul had decided to follow him all the way up to Zayn’s suite. 

Okay, he was Louis’ bodyguard and it was his job to protect Louis from whatever that could attack, kill or hurt him in any way possible. 

But.

Louis could actually ride an elevator by himself. 

What was even the point with Paul following him into the elevator anyway? As soon as Louis had walked out of the elevator, Paul would have to go down again.

Maybe he just liked to ride the elevator?

Louis’ train of thought was interrupted when the lift gently stopped and the doors opened. 

He turned to Paul. ”This is my stop.” 

Paul nodded. ”Remember, be careful tomorrow. Alright?” 

”Careful is my middle name.”

Paul didn’t seem to agree so Louis took the chance to back out from the lift before Paul gave him any more admonitions.

”Have a nice trip down again!” He said and then hurried further into the suite. 

The sound of voices grew louder as he approached the saloon. Zayn said something and the others laughed. He could distinguish Niall’s laugh, as he laughed louder than anyone else. 

Louis assumed that he was the last to arrive. The traffic had been terrible _and_ he couldn't find his favorite jeans that made his bum look amazing. He wanted to wear them tomorrow. (If he wore those jeans just to make Harry look twice at his bum, nobody had to know.)

He stepped into the saloon and shouted; ”I have arrived!” Which made the people sitting in the armchairs and sofa jump and turn their heads towards him. 

Zayn sat in one of the black armchairs with Perrie in his lap, Eleanor sat in the other armchair and Harry were squished between Niall and Liam in the sofa and- 

Wait. What? Harry?!

_Harry was here!_

Louis froze and just stared at Harry. 

He looked stunning. His legs were clad in tight black jeans and he wore a green flannel shirt that were unbuttoned down to his butterfly tattoo and his hair looked wilder and curlier than ever. 

During the past week, they had only mentioned the housewarming a few times. Neither of them had mentioned this little gathering the night before the housewarming at all. So it was safe to say that Louis was a bit shocked to see Harry here. Now. 

It wasn’t anything bad of course. He would spend every day of the week with Harry if he could. But. He would’ve liked if someone had warned him about Harry being here. 

Now he stood here unprepared, his hair a mess and dressed in just a pair of washed out gray jeans and a white t-shirt. 

”You okay, man?” Zayn’s voice drew him back into the present. 

Louis forced his gaze to move away from Harry’s beautiful face to rest it on Zayn instead. Not that Zayn was directly painful to look at, him with his fucking model-face. Louis nodded. ”Yeah I- eh. I just remembered that I forgot my toothbrush at home.”

Nice save. 

Niall gave Louis a thoughtful look. ”Now when you're mentioning it. I think I forgot my toothbrush too.” 

Liam facepalmed and Eleanor laughed and the weird tension broke. Harry gave him a little smile and a warm feeling spread throughout Louis’ body. 

He went to squeeze himself in-between Harry and Niall on the couch and on his way there he ruffled Zayn’s always so well styled quiff. 

Zayn twitched and gave him a hard stare. ”Do it again, and I’ll kill you.” 

Louis winked at him. ”Someone’s grumpy today. Virtually dangerous, I would say.”

”Brat.” Zayn muttered under his breath. 

Louis sat down in the tight space between Harry and Niall. ”So how are we doing today?” 

”We were doing great and then you came here with your big ass and now I can’t move.” Niall made a grimace.

Harry came to Louis’ rescue though. ”There’s nothing wrong with a big bum.” He looked at Niall like he was crazy. 

”Of course you don’t think that.” Louis heard Liam say from the other side of Harry. 

Louis put his hand against his forehead. ”I’m wounded that my friends think so little of me and my big ass.” He paused and sighed just for the sake of it. ”I guess I have to move my ass somewhere else.” And then he climbed up in Harry’s lap. 

Harry looked surprised for a few seconds before his expression melted into a warm smile. ”Hello.”

”Hi there.” Louis settled in Harry’s lap, it was cozy. 

This was one of the better ideas he’d had in quite a while if he did say so himself. Harry didn’t seem bothered by it either and judging from the arm he draped around Louis’ waist it seemed like he almost, maybe, liked having Louis in his lap. 

”Seems like Niall isn’t the only person here without physical boundaries.” Zayn said and both Harry and Niall let out a laugh. Harry’s laugh was low and humble in comparison with Niall’s loud cackle. 

Even if Louis would love to hear more of Harry’s heavenly laughter, he didn’t actually get what was so funny. And if it was something Louis didn’t like, it was to not understand something.

Yeah, Niall was a physical person. Everybody knew that. And Louis was physical person too. Well, only if he was with the right people or if he had enough alcohol in his blood. 

He turned to Harry. ”What are we laughing about?”

”As a welcome gift, I got tackled down by a certain Irish lad.” Harry said and his dimples appeared and made Louis wonder if he had ever seen something prettier than Harry with his chocolate curls and bright, green eyes and lovely dimples. 

Stupid Harry that made Louis feel way too many feelings at once. Stupid wonderful Harry. 

”We’re still trying to figure out who it was.” Niall opened a beer. ”Can’t imagine who would do such a thing.” 

Harry laughed and Louis could feel Harry’s muscles moving beneath him. It got him to think about when Harry had shown him his tattoos that day at the castle, and at the same time shown off his impressive six-pack. A six-pack he very much would like to lick. Like a lot. 

He shook himself out of the thought before he needed to cover an embarrassing hard-on or something and nicked Niall’s beer instead. 

\-----------

As the evening went on it dawned on Louis that Harry probably was the most endearing person he’d ever met. It made no difference whatever he did or what he said or what he didn’t mean to do. He was just so lovely!

They sat in the saloon and talked for about an hour and every time Harry laughed Louis could feel it in his whole body, made him vibrate from head to toe. 

When they sat down to eat the pizza Niall had ordered, Harry lost his balance and fell off his chair. He had just smiled up at Louis with a goofy grin plastered on his face and accepted the hand Louis reached out to help the dorky boy up from the floor. 

And Louis couldn’t stop staring when, after a few glasses of red wine, Harry’s lips had turned into a darker, rosier color. He was so close to let that cheesy pick-up line ’your lips tastes like wine and tonight I want to get drunk’ slip out of his mouth. Harry would’ve probably just giggled though. Because Louis had now learned that when Harry Styles gets tipsy on red wine, he giggles. 

_Like it wasn’t hard to resist him already._

Now he sat here, next to Louis, grasping his glass with wine like it was something in between life and death. 

”I think that’s enough wine for you today, love.”

Love? Whops.

Harry looked at him with big eyes, then down at his glass. And then up on Louis again. ”Okay.” He put the glass on the table and put his hands in his lap instead. 

Louis put down his glass too and leaned back against the cushions of the couch. 

The others were talking with low voices and Niall’s laugh was the only sound breaking the stillness. Eleanor and Perrie were cuddled up in one of the armchairs and were talking to Niall that sat on the floor meanwhile Liam and Zayn were out on the balcony having a smoke. 

He looked over at Harry. ”You know, I had no idea that you would be here today. I thought that you would arrive with the other guest tomorrow.” 

”I didn’t exactly tell you about it did I?” Harry suddenly sounded shy and abashed and he pulled up his feet on the couch and started picking lint off his socks. 

”I didn’t exactly ask either.” Louis reminded him.

Harry went quiet for a minute and he didn’t look up at Louis when he asked; ”Was it a good thing then? Me being here?”

Louis could feel a soft smile tug at his own lips. He put his hand on top of Harry’s, that directly stopped picking at his socks. ”A very good thing.”

When Harry looked up at him, his cheeks were pink and his smile were big and bright and so beautiful. Always so beautiful. 

”Really?” His voice carried an ounce of awe and his eyes sparkled with something that almost looked like hope.

”Really.” And with that Louis turned Harry’s hand over and let their fingers intertwine.

\-----------

When the clock struck midnight Zayn announced that it was time to go to bed so they were well rested for tomorrow. Louis had a feeling that Zayn just wanted to spend some alone time in the bedroom with Perrie though. When he put words to that thought he got a cushion thrown at him.

”Hey it was just an innocent question.” He fluttered his lashes at Zayn.

”Nothing is innocent with you Tomlinson.” Zayn snorted. 

Louis wiggled his eyebrows. ”If you only knew.” 

Zayn and Liam groaned and Niall laughed loudly. Louis looked over at Harry and if he wasn’t mistaken, the boy now sported a little bit of a blush.

”So the sleeping arrangements.” Perrie said and caught everyone’s attention. ”Me and Z will of course sleep in our room, then we have the two guest rooms. So. How will you solve it?”

As soon as the words were out every head in the room turned to Harry and Louis. Louis could feel his cheeks start to burn and he didn't even dare to sneak a glance at Harry. 

”It’s rude to stare.” Louis pointed out. He could feel Harry squirm next to him, clearly uncomfortable with all eyes on him. 

”As long as I get to sleep in the room closest to the kitchen, I’m happy.” Niall said. 

Louis wanted to jump up and give Niall the biggest hug in the history of hugs. Niall had seen Harry’s unease and come for the rescue and now Liam and Eleanor looked at Niall instead of Harry. 

”Why am I not surprised?” Liam said and shook his head before he continued. ”But I’d like to sleep there too. I’m an early riser so I’d like to be close to the kitchen from the beginning.” 

Louis knew where this was going. 

”Well.” Eleanor looked from Niall and Liam to Harry and Louis. ”I like kitchens.” 

Exactly as he suspected.

”Team kitchen!” Niall proclaimed and gave Eleanor an high five. 

”Then there’s you and Harry in the room with the big windows.” Zayn told Louis with a smug smile.

”Oh.” Harry suddenly sat up a bit straighter in the couch next to Louis. ”Now I get it.”

Louis looked confused at the curly boy. ”You get what?”

Most of the people in the room looked as confused as Louis felt. Everybody except Zayn and Niall. They just smiled and brofisted.

”You get what?” Louis asked again.

Harry just shook his head and glanced at Louis. ”I’ll tell you later.” 

\-----------

It didn’t take many minutes for them all to leave the saloon and head to their separate bedrooms. Louis whole body had started to tingle as soon as he realized that, yes, he would spend the night in the same bedroom as Harry. 

Harry just walked quietly beside him. They hadn’t said a word to each other after Harry's I-tell-you-later thing. 

Louis opened the door to the bedroom and stopped right in the doorway. Last time he was here, there had been no beds in this room. Now however, a big queen sized bed took up half of the space in the room. 

The room itself was very beautiful, with big windows that covered the two walls that was facing the streets just like in Zayn and Perries bedroom, except that this room was a bit smaller. 

So not only would Louis and Harry share a beautiful room. They would share a bed in a beautiful room. The butterflies in Louis’ belly started moving a bit faster. 

He walked into the room and sat down on the bed. He could hear Niall and Liam ponder if it was worth it to take a midnight snack before they went to bed. If Louis knew Niall, it would be more of a midnight buffet. 

”So. What were you gonna tell me? If now is considered as ’later’ that is?” Louis looked at Harry who still stood in the doorway. He seemed to scan the room and then he looked back at Louis. ”You know I’m not gonna bite you or something.” Louis patted the spot next to him on the bed.

Harry slowly walked into the room, dropped his bag next to the bed and sat down next to Louis. ”It’s no big deal really.” Harry said and looked down at his feet. ”When I came here today, Nelson, the man in the top hat you know? He followed me up, carrying my bag and stuff.”

Louis nodded. 

”He asked Zayn where he was gonna put my bag.” Harry continued. ”And Zayn told him to put it in the saloon and said that I was gonna choose where to sleep later. And then they laughed, Niall and Zayn, and I didn’t get what they were laughing about. But now I get that it was because I was gonna sleep in the same room as you, because…” Harry trailed off. 

”Because?” Louis urged.

”Because I think your hot. And stuff.”

Harry thought Louis was hot? Not that Louis hadn’t heard it before. He had, by several people, magazines, tv reporters… But Harry was the definition of hot. He was the hottest person Louis had ever met! And he thought _Louis_ was hot!? And stuff. Don’t forget the ’stuff’. What did he mean by stuff?

”And stuff?” Louis face felt hot and his smile grew bigger and bigger for every second that passed. 

”And stuff.” Harry was still looking down at his own feet but Louis could see that one of his dimples had appeared. 

Even if Louis was curious as to what Harry meant by ’stuff’ he felt that they would leave it here for today. It was enough that Harry had told him that he was hot. 

They made themselves ready to go to bed. When Harry was brushing his teeth in the bathroom, which belonged to their room, Louis put on his pajamas and crawled under the covers. It was a nice bed. Not too soft and not too solid. 

Harry came out of the bathroom and pulled off his shirt and dodged out of his skintight jeans until he was left in just his boxers. 

He looked rather obscene with his tattoos and muscular body clad in only a pair of tight black boxers. 

And Louis didn’t stare. He didn’t stare at all. Not a single glance. 

Okay, he stared. 

A little. 

Harry looked back at Louis. ”Is it okay that I sleep like this?” He gestured along his body. 

If it was okay? It was more than okay! 

”Yeah. No problem.” Louis tried for a nonchalant tone but it came out more like a breathless, desperate wheezing. He needed to get a hold of himself. 

Harry climbed into the bed and began making himself comfortable. Louis tried to make himself busy checking his phone and listening to the muffled voices of their friends making themselves ready to go to bed, just so he wouldn't sneak any glances at Harry in his half-naked state. 

The sounds of ruffling and shuffling had died down and Louis turned his head and dared to look over at Harry.

He was propped up on his elbow and he looked at Louis, a tiny smile softening his features. ”You know-” He looked at Louis and his brow began to furrow. ”My friends didn’t believe me, when I first said that I had met you.” 

Well that was quite interesting. Harry had thus spoken about Louis with his friends. When Louis though about it, this was actually the first time that Harry mentioned his friends at all. ”Really. Is that so?” 

”Yeah. I had to show them the pictures of us from the party to make them believe me.”

Wait. What? Pictures? Of him and Harry?

”What pictures?”

”Niall took my phone and played paparazzi for a while. You don’t remember?” Harry put his head askew and looked baffled at Louis. 

After their passionately kissing-session on the floor, it was all blurry for Louis. But he wasn’t sure if could tell Harry that. It would probably be awkward if he mentioned the kissing and all that stuff. So Louis just shook his head. 

Harry snickered and reached for his phone on the nightstand. He opened the camera roll and scrolled a bit then he clicked at a picture and gave the phone to Louis. ”Look for yourself.” 

Louis started skim through the pictures. The first was just a drunken mess of selfies of Niall which he laughed quietly at, then there was Zayn and Perrie cuddling and being adorable on the sofa. He laughed at the pictures of Eleanor dancing on the table and at the selfie of Niall and Liam. 

The next pictures were off Liam building the shot pyramid. He was kneeling next to it and looked merely proud of his work.

”I still can’t believe that it was Liam.” Louis said mostly to himself. 

There was at least ten pictures of blurry nonsense before pictures of Harry trying to breakdance. 

Harry took the phone and started skipping through the pictures in panic while Louis laughed. ”That’s nothing we want to see. Nothing interesting at all.” He kept scrolling.

”Give me the phone now, I want to see the rest of the pictures!” 

Harry sighed and gave Louis the phone again. But he looked mildly amused rather then irritable. 

The picture that lit up the screen right now was of Louis himself. He stood on top of the bed with his arm spread and a dopey smile on his face. 

”I’m looking like a right maniac!” 

”No you’re not.” 

”Yes look!” Louis pointed at his face on the screen. ”That’s not the face of a sane person! It’s the face of a disney villain!” 

Harry laughed. ”Should I call you Prince John instead of Prince Louis then?” 

Louis looked wistfully up at Harry. ”I just might let you do that, just because you found such a fitting character.” 

Harry smiled and shook his head. ”No I like ’Prince Louis’ better. It’s got a nice ring to it.”

”I’m flattered.” Louis winked at Harry and continued to scroll through the pictures. 

The next pictures were impossible to say what it really was and Louis had a feeling Niall had taken them while dancing or something. He skipped through the blurry weird pictures until he found a clear one. It was of himself and Harry. 

He felt the corners of his mouth turn upwards. Harry had joined him on top of the bed and they did, something that could only be described as, the titanic pose. With Louis being Rose in this case and Harry being Jack. A distant memory caught his brains attention.

”I think I remember this!” He exclaimed. 

He scrolled through the next couple of photos that showed Harry and Louis trying to dance, with an emphasis on ’trying’. His smile grew for every picture.

There were a couple of pictures of the floor and then it was a selfie of Harry and Louis.

”That’s the last picture.” Harry said but Louis did barely register it, too caught up in looking at that selfie. 

They both sported big smiles and they looked kind of wrecked with messy hair and flushed cheeks, but they looked so good together. They really did. They fitted each other in a way Louis couldn't quite put his finger on, let alone describe it. 

”I like this.” He looked up at Harry. ”Can you send it to me?” 

Harry seemed caught off guard, face blank as he stared at Louis for a minute before his features turned into a softer one. Eyes warm, happy and almost shining. ”Yeah. Of course.” 

A few moments later Louis’ phone vibrated on the nightstand. 

”Thank you.” 

”No problem.” Harry bowed his head but Louis didn't miss the smile on the boy’s lips. 

They turned off the light of the lamps on their bedside tables and then just lied there next to each other. 

The room was dark and the only sound to be heard was their calm breathing. 

They both searched the others hand simultaneously, and Louis could have sworn that they both stopped breathing for a second when their fingers intertwined. 

As Louis closed his eyes, he wondered if he’d ever gone to sleep any happier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I hope you liked this chapter! I have big plans for what's gonna come next! But how long is this fanfic?! I mean I didn't really plan on how long it would be but I don't think I ever imagined that it would be this long, but it's just so fun! 
> 
> However, school is taking up much of my time and that's why this is late. I have felt so bad about it though! Never gonna take so long to update again! 
> 
> If you have any questions feel free to ask them here or over at my tumblr (fr1daannamaria) you can holla me whenever! And comments on here always make me happy! And I've almost reached 100 kudos which makes me very happy! 
> 
> I'm gonna catch some sleep now and then I'm gonna continue writing the next chapter, housewarming ftw! Thanks to everybody that reads this! xx

**Author's Note:**

> I would be really happy if you gave me feedback! 
> 
> Come and talk to me on tumblr! wwww.fridaannamaria.tumblr.com
> 
> Or on Instagram! @fridaannamaria


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